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JUDGE RICHARD HENDERSON 

From a drawing by T. Gilbert White 
Detail of painting, The Great Treaty, in Kentucky State Capitol 



THE CONQUEST OF 
THE OLD SOUTHWEST 



THE ROMANTIC STORY OF THE EARLY 

PIONEERS INTO VIRGINIA, THE 

CAROLINAS, TENNESSEE, AND KENTUCKY 

1740-1790 



BY 
ARCHIBALD HENDERSON, Ph.D., D.C.L. 



Some to endure and many to fail. 
Some to conquer and many to quail 
Toiling over the Wilderness Trail. 




NEW YORK 

THE CENTURY CO. 

1920 



*" / Co 



Copyright, 1920, by 
The Century Co. 



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CI.A565830 






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TO 

THE HISTORIAN OF 
OLD WEST AND NEW WEST 

FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER 
WITH ADMIRATION AND REGARD 



The country might invite a prince from his palace, merely 
for the pleasure of contemplating its beauty and excellence; 
but only add the rapturous idea of property, and what allure- 
ments can the world offer for the loss of so glorious a prospect? 

— Richakd Henderson. 



The established Authority of any government in 
America, and the policy of Government at home, are 
both insufficient to restrain the Americans. . . . 
They acquire no attachment to Place : But wander- 
ing about Seems engrafted in their Nature ; and it is 
a weakness incident to it, that they Should for ever 
immagine the Lands further off, are Still better than 
those upon which they are already settled. 

— Lord Dunmore, to the Earl of Dartmouth. 



INTRODUCTION 

The romantic and thrilling story of the 
southward and westward migration of succes- 
sive waves of transplanted European peoples 
throughout the entire course of the eighteenth 
century is the history of the growth and evo- 
lution of American democracy. Upon the 
American continent was wrought out, through 
almost superhuman daring, incredible hard- 
ship, and surpassing endurance, the formation 
of a new society. The European rudely con- 
fronted with the pitiless conditions of the wil- 
derness soon discovered that his maintenance, 
indeed his existence, was conditioned upon his 
individual efficiency and his resourcefulness in 
adapting himself to his environment. The 
very history of the human race, from the age 
of primitive man to the modern era of en- 
lightened civilization, is traversed in the Old 

ix 



INTRODUCTION 

Southwest throughout the course of half a 
century. 

A series of dissolving views thrown upon 
the screen, picturing the successive episodes in 
the history of a single family as it wended its 
way southward along the eastern valleys, reso- 
lutely repulsed the sudden attack of the In- 
dians, toiled painfully up the granite slopes 
of the Appalachians, and pitched down into 
the transmontane wilderness upon the western 
waters, would give to the spectator a vivid con- 
ception, in miniature, of the westward move- 
ment. But certain basic elements in the grand 
procession, revealed to the sociologist and the 
economist, would perhaps escape his scrutiny. 
Back of the individual, back of the family, 
even, lurk the creative and formative impulses 
of colonization, expansion, and government. 
In the recognition of these social and economic 
tendencies the individual merges into the 
group; the group into the community; the 
community into a new society. In this clear 
perspective of historic development the spec- 
tacular hero at first sight seems to diminish; 



INTRODUCTION 

but the mass, the movement, the social force 
which he epitomizes and interprets, gain in im- 
pressiveness and dignity. 1 

As the irresistible tide of migratory peoples 
swept ever southward and westward, seeking 
room for expansion and economic independ- 
ence, a series of frontiers was gradually thrust 
out toward the wilderness in successive waves 
of irregular indentation. The true leader in 
this westward advance, to whom less than his 
deserts has been accorded by the historian, is 
the drab and mercenary trader with the In- 
dians. The story of his enterprise and of his 
adventures begins with the planting of Euro- 
pean civilization upon American soil. In the 
mind of the aborigines he created the passion 
for the fruits, both good and evil, of the white 
man's civilization, and he was welcomed by the 
Indian because he also brought the means for 
repelling the further advance of that civiliza- 
tion. The trader was of incalculable service 
to the pioneer in first spying out the land and 
charting the trackless wilderness. The trail 
rudely marked by the buffalo became in time 

xi 



INTRODUCTION 

the Indian path and the trader's "trace"; and 
the pioneers upon the westward march, follow- 
ing the line of least resistance, cut out their 
roads along these very routes. It is not too 
much to say that had it not been for the trader 
— brave, hardy, and adventurous however 
often crafty, unscrupulous, and immoral — the 
expansionist movement upon the American 
continent would have been greatly retarded. 

So scattered and ramified were the enter- 
prises and expeditions of the traders with the 
Indians that the frontier which they established 
was at best both shifting and unstable. Fol- 
lowing far in the wake of these advance agents 
of the civilization which they so often dis- 
graced, came the cattle-herder or rancher, who 
took advantage of the extensive pastures and 
ranges along the uplands and foot-hills to raise 
immense herds of cattle. Thus was formed 
what might be called a rancher's frontier, 
thrust out in advance of the ordinary farming 
settlements and serving as the first serious bar- 
rier against the Indian invasion. The west- 
ward movement of population is in this respect 

xii 



INTRODUCTION 

a direct advance from the coast. Years before 
the influx into the Old Southwest of the tides 
of settlement from the northeast, the more ad- 
venturous struck straight westward in the 
wake of the fur-trader, and here and there 
erected the cattle-ranges beyond the farming 
frontier of the piedmont region. The wild 
horses and cattle which roamed at will through 
the upland barrens and pea-vine pastures were 
herded in and driven for sale to the city mar- 
kets of the East. 

The farming frontier of the piedmont pla- 
teau constituted the real backbone of western 
settlement. The pioneering farmers, with the 
adventurous instincts of the hunter and the 
explorer, plunged deeper and ever deeper into 
the wilderness, lured on by the prospect of 
free and still richer lands in the dim interior. 
Settlements quickly sprang up in the neighbor- 
hood of military posts or rude forts established 
to serve as safeguards against hostile attack; 
and trade soon flourished between these settle- 
ments and the eastern centers, following the 
trails of the trader and the more beaten paths 

xiii 



INTRODUCTION 

of emigration. The bolder settlers who ven- 
tured farthest to the westward were held in 
communication with the East through their 
dependence upon salt and other necessities of 
life; and the search for salt-springs in the 
virgin wilderness was an inevitable conse- 
quence of the desire of the pioneer to shake 
off his dependence upon the coast. 

The prime determinative principle of the 
progressive American civilization of the eight- 
eenth century was the passion for the acquisi- 
tion of land. The struggle for economic in- 
dependence developed the germ of American 
liberty and became the differentiating principle 
of American character. Here was a vast un- 
appropriated region in the interior of the con- 
tinent to be had for the seeking, which served 
as lure and inspiration to the man daring 
enough to risk his all in its acquisition. It 
was in accordance with human nature and the 
principles of political economy that this un- 
known extent of uninhabited transmontane 
land, widely renowned for beauty, richness, 
and fertility, should excite grandiose dreams 

xiv 



INTRODUCTION 

in the minds of English and Colonials alike. 
England was said to be "New Land mad and 
everybody there has his eye fixed on this coun- 
try." 2 Groups of wealthy or well-to-do in- 
dividuals organized themselves into land com- 
panies for the colonization and exploitation of 
the West. The pioneer promoter was a pow- 
erful creative force in westward expansion; 
and the activities of the early land companies 
were decisive factors in the colonization of the 
wilderness. Whether acting under the au- 
thority of a crown grant or proceeding on their 
own authority, the land companies tended to 
give stability and permanence to settlements 
otherwise hazardous and insecure. 

The second determinative impulse of the 
pioneer civilization was wanderlust — the pas- 
sionately inquisitive instinct of the hunter, the 
traveler, and the explorer. This restless class 
of nomadic wanderers was responsible in part 
for the royal proclamation of 1763, a second- 
ary object of which, according to Edmund 
Burke, was the limitation of the colonies on 
the West, as "the charters of many of our old 

XV 



INTRODUCTION 

colonies give them, with few exceptions, no 
bounds to the westward but the South Sea." 
The Long Hunters, taking their lives in their 
hands, fared boldly forth to a fabled hunter's 
paradise in the far-away wilderness, because 
they were driven by the irresistible desire of a 
Ponce de Leon or a De Soto to find out the 
truth about the unknown lands beyond. 

But the hunter was not only thrilled with 
the passion of the chase and of discovery; he 
was intent also upon collecting the furs and 
skins of wild animals for lucrative barter and 
sale in the centers of trade. He was quick 
to make "tomahawk claims" and to assert 
"corn rights" as he spied out the rich virgin 
land for future location and cultivation. Free 
land and no taxes appealed to the backwoods- 
man, tired of paying quit-rents to the agents 
of wealthy lords across the sea. Thus the 
settler speedily followed in the hunter's wake. 
In his wake also went many rude and lawless 
characters of the border, horse thieves and 
criminals of different sorts, who sought to hide 
their delinquencies in the merciful liberality 

xvi 



INTRODUCTION 

of the wilderness. For the most part, how- 
ever, it was the salutary instinct of the home- 
builder — the man with the ax, who made a 
little clearing in the forest and built there a 
rude cabin that he bravely defended at all risks 
against continued assaults — which, in defiance 
of every restraint, irresistibly thrust westward 
the thin and jagged line of the frontier. The 
ax and the surveyor's chain, along with the 
rifle and the hunting-knife, constituted the 
armorial bearings of the pioneer. With in- 
dividual as with corporation, with explorer as 
with landlord, land-hunger was the master 
impulse of the era. 

The various desires which stimulated and 
promoted westward expansion were, to be sure, 
often found in complete conjunction. The 
trader sought to exploit the Indian for his own 
advantage, selling him whisky, trinkets, and 
firearms in return for rich furs and costly pel- 
tries; yet he was often a hunter himse'f and 
collected great stores of peltries as the result 
of his solitary and protracted hunting-expedi- 
tions. The rancher and the herder sought to 

xvii 



INTRODUCTION 

exploit the natural vegetation of marsh and 
upland, the cane-brakes and pea-vines; yet 
the constantly recurring need for fresh pas- 
turage made him a pioneer also, drove him 
ever nearer to the mountains, and furnished 
the economic motive for his westward advance. 
The small farmer needed the virgin soil of the 
new region, the alluvial river-bottoms, and the 
open prairies, for the cultivation of his crops 
and the grazing of his cattle; yet in the inter- 
vals between the tasks of farm life he scoured 
the wilderness in search of game and spied 
out new lands for future settlement. 

This restless and nomadic race, says the 
keenly observant Francis Baily, "delight much 
to live on the frontiers, where they can enjoy 
undisturbed, and free from the control of any 
laws, the blessings which nature has bestowed 
upon them." 3 Independence of spirit, impa- 
tience of restraint, the inquisitive nature, 
and the nomadic temperament — these are the 
strains in the American character of the 
eighteenth century which ultimately blended 
to create a typical democracy. The rolling 

xviii 



INTRODUCTION 

of wave after wave of settlement westward 
across the American continent, with a rever- 
sion to primitive conditions along the line of 
the farthest frontier, and a marked rise in 
the scale of civilization at each successive 
stage of settlement, from the western limit 
to the eastern coast, exemplifies from one 
aspect the history of the American people 
during two centuries. 4 This era, constitut- 
ing the first stage in our national existence, 
and productive of a buoyant national char- 
acter shaped in democracy upon a free soil, 
closed only yesterday with the exhaustion 
of cultivable free land, the disappearance of 
the last frontier, and the recent death of 
"Buffalo Bill." The splendid inauguration of 
the period, in the region of the Carolinas, Vir- 
ginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, during the 
second half of the eighteenth century, is the 
theme of this story of the pioneers of the Old 
Southwest. 



XIX 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Introduction ix 

I The Migration of the Peoples . . 3 

II The Cradle of Westward Expansion 19 

III The Back Country and the Border 32 

IV The Indian War 49 

V In Defense of Civilization ... 64 

VI Crushing the Cherokees .... 78 

VII The Land Companies 96 

VIII The Long Hunters in the Twilight 

Zone 116 

IX Daniel Boone and Wilderness Ex- 
ploration 130 

X Daniel Boone in Kentucky . . . 144> 

XI The Regulators 160 

XII Watauga — Haven of Liberty . . 175 

XIII Opening the Gateway — Dunmore's 

War 196 

xxi 



CONTENTS 

XIV Richard Henderson and the Tran- 
sylvania Company 216 

XV Transylvania — A Wilderness Com- 
monwealth 237 

XVI The Repulse of the Red Men . . 252 

XVII The Colonization of the Cumber- 
land 269 

XVIII King's Mountain 289 

XIX The State of Franklin .... 306 

XX The Lure of Spain — The Haven of 

Statehood 327 

List of Notes 351 

Bibliographical Notes .... 363 

Index 371 



XXII 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Richard Henderson Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

Col. Daniel Boone 36 

Fort Dobbs 36 

The Transylvania Fort at Boonesborough . . 56 

The Right Honorable Archibald, Earl of Eglin- 
town, Lord Montgomery Kilvinning (1726- 
1796) 88 

Colonel James Grant (1720-1806) .... 92 

Arthur Dobbs, Governor of North Carolina . 132 

General Hugh Waddell 132 

Title-Page of Herman Husband's Impartial Re- 
lation, etc 178 

Alexander Martin, Governor of North Carolina 182 

General William Lenoir 182 

Jameg Robertson 188 

The Old Southwest, 1740-1790 . . . .192 

Daniel Boone Leading Colonists for Kentucky 

—1773 202 

xxiii 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

John Murray, Earl of Dunmore .... 210 

Advertisement of the Transylvania Company . 220 

First Page of Richard Henderson's Diary . . 226 

Lord Dunmore's Proclamation Against the 
Transylvania Company 240 

The Capture of Jemima Boone and the Calla- 
away Girls by the Indians 270 

Isaac Shelby ' 302 

Title Page of Proposed Constitution of the 
State of Frankland . 320 

John Sevier (1745-1815) 328 



XXIV 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD 
SOUTHWEST 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD 
SOUTHWEST 

CHAPTER I 

THE MIGRATION OF THE PEOPLES 

Inhabitants flock in here daily, mostly from Pensilvania and 
other parts of America, who are over-stocked with people and 
some directly from Europe, they commonly seat themselves 
towards the West, and have got near the mountains. 

— Gabriel Johnston, Governor of North Carolina, 
to the Secretary of the Board of Trade, 
February 15, 1751. 

AT the opening of the eighteenth century 
the tide of population had swept inland 
to the "fall line," the westward boundary of 
the established settlements. The actual fron- 
tier had been advanced by the more aggres- 
sive pioneers to within fifty miles of the Blue 
Ridge. So rapid was the settlement in North 
Carolina that in the interval 1717-32 the popu- 
lation quadrupled in numbers. A map of the 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

colonial settlements in 1725 reveals a narrow 
strip of populated land along the Atlantic 
coast, of irregular indentation, with occasional 
isolated nuclei of settlements further in the in- 
terior. The civilization thus established con- 
tinued to maintain a close and unbroken com- 
munication with England and the Continent. 
As long as the settlers, for economic reasons, 
clung to the coast, they reacted but slowly to 
the transforming influences of the frontier.. 
Within a triangle of continental altitude with 
its apex in New England, bounded on the 
east by the Atlantic, and on the west by the 
Appalachian range, lay the settlements, di- 
vided into two zones — tidewater and piedmont. 
As no break occurred in the great mountain 
system south of the Hudson and Mohawk val- 
leys, the difficulties of cutting a passage 
through the towering wall of living green long 
proved an effective obstacle to the crossing 
of the grim mountain barrier. 

In the beginning the settlements gradually 
extended westward from the coast in irregular 
outline, the indentations taking form around 



THE MIGRATION OF THE PEOPLES 

such natural centers of attraction as areas of 
fertile soil, frontier posts, mines, salt-springs, 
and stretches of upland favorable for grazing. 
After a time a second advance of settlement 
was begun in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and 
Maryland, running in a southwesterly direc- 
tion along the broad terraces to the east of 
the Appalachian Range, which in North Caro- 
lina lies as far as two hundred and fifty miles 
from the sea. The Blue Ridge in Virginia 
and a belt of pine barrens in North Carolina 
were hindrances to this advance, but did not 
entirely check it. This second streaming of 
the population thrust into the long, narrow 
wedge of the piedmont zone a class of people 
differing in spirit and in tendency from their 
more aristocratic and complacent neighbors to 
the east. 

These settlers of the Valley of Virginia 
and the North Carolina piedmont region 
— English, Scotch-Irish, Germans, Scotch, 
Irish, Welsh, and a few French — were the first 
pioneers of the Old Southwest. From the 
joint efforts of two strata of population, geo- 

5 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

graphically, socially, and economically distinct 
— tidewater and piedmont, Old South and New 
South — originated and flowered the third and 
greatest movement of westward expansion, 
opening with the surmounting of the mountain 
barrier and ending in the occupation and as- 
sumption of the vast medial valley of the con- 
tinent. 

Synchronous with the founding of James- 
town in Virginia, significantly enough, was 
the first planting of Ulster with the English 
and Scotch. Emigrants from the Scotch 
Lowlands, sometimes as many as four thou- 
sand a year (1625), continued throughout the 
century to pour into Ulster. "Those of the 
North of Ireland . . .," as pungently de- 
scribed in 1679 by the Secretary of State, Leo- 
line Jenkins, to the Duke of Ormond, "are 
most Scotch and Scotch breed and are the 
Northern Presbyterians and phanatiques, 
lusty, able-bodied, hardy and stout men, where 
one may see three or four hundred at every 
meeting-house on Sunday, and all the North 
of Ireland is inhabited by these, which is the 

6 



THE MIGRATION OF THE PEOPLES 

popular place of all Ireland by far. They are 
very numerous and greedy after land." Dur- 
ing the quarter of a century after the English 
Revolution of 1688 and the Jacobite uprising 
in Ireland, which ended in 1691 with the com- 
plete submission of Ireland to William and 
Mary, not less than fifty thousand Scotch, 
according to Archbishop Synge, settled in 
Ulster. Until the beginning of the eighteenth 
century there was no considerable emigra- 
tion to America; and it was first set up as 
a consequence of English interference with 
trade and religion. Repressive measures 
passed by the English parliament (1665- 
1699), prohibiting the exportation from Ire- 
land to England and Scotland of cattle, beef, 
pork, dairy products, etc., and to any country 
whatever of manufactured wool, had aroused 
deep resentment among the Scotch-Irish, who 
had built up a great commerce. This discon- 
tent was greatly aggravated by the imposition 
of religious disabilities upon the Presbyterians, 
who, in addition to having to pay tithes for 
the support of the established church, were 

7 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

excluded from all civil and military office 
(1704), while their ministers were made liable 
to penalties for celebrating marriages. 

This pressure upon a high-spirited people 
resulted inevitably in an exodus to the New 
World. The principal ports by which the 
Ulsterites entered America were Lewes and 
Newcastle (Delaware), Philadelphia and Bos- 
ton. The streams of immigration steadily 
flowed up the Delaware Valley; and by 1720 
the Scotch-Irish began to arrive in Bucks 
County. So rapid was the rate of increase in 
immigration that the number of arrivals soon 
mounted from a few hundred to upward of 
six thousand, in a single year (1729) ; and 
within a few years this number was doubled. 
According to the meticulous Franklin, the 
proportion increased from a very small ele- 
ment of the population of Pennsylvania in 
1700 to one fourth of the whole in 1749, and 
to one third of the whole (350,000) in 1774. 
Writing to the Penns in 1724, James Logan, 
Secretary of the Province, caustically refers 
to the Ulster settlers on the disputed Mary- 

8 



THE MIGRATION OF THE PEOPLES 

land line as "these bold and indigent strangers, 
saying as their excuse when challenged for 
titles, that we had solicited for colonists and 
they had come accordingly." The spirit of 
these defiant squatters is succinctly expressed 
in their statement to Logan that it "was 
against the laws of God and nature that so 
much land should be idle while so many Chris- 
tians wanted it to work on and to raise their 
bread." 

The rising scale of prices for Pennsylvania 
lands, changing from ten pounds and two shill- 
ings quit-rents per hundred acres in 1719 to 
fifteen pounds ten shillings per hundred acres 
with a quit-rent of a halfpenny per acre in 
1732, soon turned the eyes of the thrifty 
Scotch-Irish settlers southward and south- 
westward. In Maryland in 1738 lands were 
offered at five pounds sterling per hundred 
acres. Simultaneously, in the Valley of Vir- 
ginia free grants of a thousand acres per fam- 
ily were being made. In the North Carolina 
piedmont region the proprietary, Lord Gran- 
ville, through his agents was disposing of the 

9 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

most desirable lands to settlers at the rate of 
three shillings proclamation money for six hun- 
dred and forty acres, the unit of land-division ; 
and was also making large free grants on the 
condition of seating a certain proportion of set- 
tlers. "Lord Carteret's land in Carolina," 
says North Carolina's first American histo- 
rian, "where the soil was cheap, presented a 
tempting residence to people of every denom- 
ination. Emigrants from the north of Ire- 
land, by the way of Pennsylvania, flocked 
to that country; and a considerable part of 
North Carolina ... is inhabited by those 
people or their descendants." 5 From 1740 
onward, attracted by the rich lure of cheap 
and even free lands in Virginia and North 
Carolina, a tide of immigration swept cease- 
lessly into the valleys of the Shenandoah, 
the Yadkin, and the Catawba. The immen- 
sity of this mobile, drifting mass, which some- 
times brought "more than 400 families with 
horse waggons and cattle" into North Carolina 
in a single year (1752-3), is attested by the 
fact that from 1732 to 1754, mainly as the 

10 



THE MIGRATION OF THE PEOPLES 

result of the Scotch-Irish inundation, the pop- 
ulation of North Carolina more than doubled. 

The second important racial stream of popu- 
lation in the settlement of the same region was 
composed of Germans, attracted to this coun- 
try from the Palatinate. Lured on by the 
highly colored stories of the commercial agents 
for promoting immigration — the "newland- 
ers," who were thoroughly unscrupulous in 
their methods and extravagant in their repre- 
sentations — a migration from Germany began 
in the second decade of the eighteenth century 
and quickly assumed alarming proportions. 
Although certain of the emigrants were well- 
to-do, a very great number were "redemp- 
tioners" (indentured servants), who in order 
to pay for their transportation were compelled 
to pledge themselves to several years of servi- 
tude. This economic condition caused the 
German immigrant, wherever he went, to be- 
come a settler of the back country, necessity 
compelling him to pass by the more expensive 
lands near the coast. 

For well-nigh sixty years the influx of Ger- 
11 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

man immigrants of various sects was very 
great, averaging something like fifteen hun- 
dred a year into Pennsylvania alcne from 1727 
to 1775. Indeed, Pennsylvania, one third of 
whose population at the beginning of the Revo- 
lution was German, early became the great 
distributing center for the Germans as well 
as for the Scotch-Irish. Certainly by 1727 
Adam Miiller and his fellow Germans had 
established the first permanent white settle- 
ment in the Valley of Virginia. 6 By 1732 Jost 
Heydt, accompanied by sixteen families, came 
from York, Pennsylvania, and settled on the 
Opeckon River, in the neighborhood of the 
present Winchester. 7 There is no longer any 
doubt that "the portion of the Shenandoah 
Valley sloping to the north was almost en- 
tirely settled by Germans." 

It was about the middle of the century that 
these pioneers of the Old Southwest, the 
shrewd, industrious, and thrifty Pennsylvania 
Germans (who came to be generally called 
"Pennsylvania Dutch" from the incorrect 
translation of Pennsylvanische Deutsche), be- 

12 



THE MIGRATION OF THE PEOPLES 

gan to pour into the piedmont region of North 
Carolina. In the autumn, after the harvest 
was in, these ambitious Pennsylvania pioneers 
would pack up their belongings in wagons and 
on beasts of burden and head for the south- 
west, trekking down in the manner of the 
Boers of South Africa. This movement into 
the fertile valley lands of the Yadkin and the 
Catawba continued unabated throughout the 
entire third quarter of the century. Owing to 
their unfamiliarity with the English language 
and the solidarity of their instincts, the Ger- 
man settlers at first had little share in govern- 
ment. But they devotedly played their part 
in the defense of the exposed settlements and 
often bore the brunt of Indian attack. 8 

The bravery and hardihood displayed by the 
itinerant missionaries sent out by the Pennsyl- 
vania Synod under the direction of Count 
Zinzendorf (1742-8), and by the Moravian 
Church (1748-53) , are mirrored in the numer- 
ous diaries, written in German, happily pre- 
served to posterity in religious archives of 
Pennsylvania and North Carolina. These 

13 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

simple, earnest crusaders, animated by pure 
and unselfish motives, would visit on a single 
tour of a thousand miles the principal German 
settlements in Maryland and Virginia (includ- 
ing the present West Virginia) . Sometimes 
they would make an extended circuit through 
North Carolina, South Carolina, and even 
Georgia, everywhere bearing witness to the 
truth of the gospel and seeking to carry the 
most elemental forms of the Christian religion, 
preaching and prayer, to the primitive fron- 
tiersmen marooned along the outer fringe of 
white settlements. These arduous journeys in 
the cause of piety place this type of pioneer 
of the Old Southwest in alleviating contrast 
to the often relentless and bloodthirsty figure 
of the rude borderer. 

Noteworthy among these pious pilgrimages 
is the Virginia journey of Brothers Leonhard 
Schnell and John Brandmuller (October 12 
to December 12, 1749) . 9 At the last outpost 
of civilization, the scattered settlements in Bath 
and Alleghany counties, these courageous mis- 
sionaries — feasting the while solely on bear 

14 



THE MIGRATION OF THE PEOPLES 

meat, for there was no bread — encountered 
conditions of almost primitive savagery, of 
which they give this graphic picture: "Then 
we came to a house, where we had to lie on 
bear skins around the fire like the rest. . . . 
The clothes of the people consist of deer skins, 
their food of Johnny cakes, deer and bear 
meat. A kind of white people are found here, 
who live like savages. Hunting is their chief 
occupation." Into the valley of the Yadkin 
in December, 1752, came Bishop Spangenberg 
and a party of Moravians, accompanied by a 
surveyor and two guides, for the purpose of 
locating the one hundred thousand acres of 
land which had been offered them on easy terms 
the preceding year by Lord Granville. This 
journey was remarkable as an illustration of 
sacrifices willingly made and extreme hard- 
ships uncomplainingly endured for the sake of 
the Moravian brotherhood. In the back coun- 
try of North Carolina near the Mulberry 
Fields they found the whole woods full of 
Cherokee Indians engaged in hunting. A 
beautiful site for the projected settlement met 

15 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

their delighted gaze at this place ; but they soon 
learned to their regret that it had already been 
"taken up" by Daniel Boone's future father- 
in-law, Morgan Bryan. 

On October 8, 1753, a party of twelve single 
men headed by the Rev. Bernhard Adam 
Grube, set out from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 
to trek down to the new-found haven in the 
Carolina hinterland — -"a corner which the 
Lord has reserved for the Brethren" — in An- 
son County. 10 Following for the most part 
the great highway extending from Philadel- 
phia to the Yadkin, over which passed the 
great throng sweeping into the back country 
of North Carolina — through the Valley of 
Virginia and past Robert Luhny's mill on the 
James River — they encountered many hard- 
ships along the way. Because of their "long 
wagon," they had much difficulty in crossing 
one steep mountain; and of this experience 
Brother Grube, with a touch of modest pride, 
observes: "People had told us that this hill 
was most dangerous, and that we would 
scarcely be able to cross it, for Morgan Bryan, 

16 



THE MIGRATION OF THE PEOPLES 

the first to travel this way, had to take the 
wheels off his wagon and carry it piecemeal 
to the top, and had been three months on the 
journey from the Shanidore [Shenandoah] to 
the Etkin [Yadkin]." 

These men were the highest type of the pio- 
neers of the Old Southwest, inspired with the 
instinct of home-makers in a land where, if idle 
rumor were to be credited, "the people lived 
like wild men, never hearing of God or His 
Word." In one hand they bore the implement 
of agriculture, in the other the book of the gos- 
pel of Jesus Christ. True faith shines forth in 
the simply eloquent words : "We thanked our 
Saviour that he had so graciously led us hither, 
and had helped us through all the hard places, 
for no matter how dangerous it looked, nor 
how little we saw how we could win through, 
everything always went better than seemed 
possible." The promise of a new day — the 
dawn of the heroic age — rings out in the pious 
carol of camaraderie at their journey's end: 

We hold arrival Lovefeast here, 
In Carolina land, 
17 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

A company of Brethren true, 

A little Pilgrim-Band, 
Called by the Lord to be of those 

Who through the whole world go, 
To bear Him witness everywhere, 

And nought but Jesus know. 



18 



CHAPTER II 

. THE CRADLE OF WESTWARD EXPANSION 

In the. year 1746 I was up in the country that is now Anson, 
Orange and Rowan Counties, there was not then above one 
hundred fighting men there is now at least three thousand for 
the most part Irish Protestants and Germans and dailey 
increasing. 

— Matthew Rowan, President of the North Caro- 
lina Council, to the Board of Trade, June 28, 
1753. 

THE conquest of the West is usually at- 
tributed to the ready initiative, the stern 
self-reliance, and the libertarian instinct of the 
expert backwoodsmen. These bold, nomadic 
spirits were animated by an unquenchable de- 
sire to plunge into the wilderness in search of 
an El Dorado at the outer verge of civilization, 
free of taxation, quit-rents, and the law's re- 
straint. They longed to build homes for them- 
selves and their descendants in a limitless, free 
domain; or else to fare deeper and deeper into 
the trackless forests in search of adventure. 

19 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

Yet one must not overlook the fact that behind 
Boone and pioneers of his stamp were men of 
conspicuous civil and military genius, construc- 
tive in purpose and creative in imagination, 
who devoted their best gifts to actual conquest 
and colonization. These men of large intel- 
lectual mold — themselves surveyors, hunters, 
and pioneers — were inspired with the larger 
vision of the expansionist. Whether colo- 
nizers, soldiers, or speculators on the grand 
scale, they sought to open at one great stroke 
the vast trans -Alleghany regions as a peaceful 
abode for mankind. 

Two distinct classes of society were grad- 
ually drawing apart from each other in North 
Carolina and later in Virginia — the pioneer 
democracy of the back country and the upland, 
and the planter aristocracy of the lowland and 
the tide- water region. From the frontier came 
the pioneer explorers whose individual enter- 
prise and initiative were such potent factors in 
the exploitation of the wilderness. From the 
border counties still in contact with the East 
came a number of leaders. Thus in the heart 



THE CRADLE OF WESTWARD EXPANSION 

of the Old Southwest the two determinative 
principles already referred to, the inquisitive 
and the acquisitive instincts, found a fortunate 
conjunction. The exploratory passion of the 
pioneer, directed in the interest of commercial 
enterprise, prepared the way for the great 
westward migration. The warlike disposition 
of the hardy backwoodsman, controlled by the 
exercise of military strategy, accomplished the 
conquest of the trans-Alleghany country. 

Fleeing from the traditional bonds of caste 
and aristocracy in England and Europe, from 
economic boycott and civil oppression, from re- 
ligious persecution and favoritism, many 
worthy members of society in the first quarter 
of the eighteenth century sought a haven of 
refuge in the "Quackerthal" of William Penn, 
with its trustworthy guarantees of free toler- 
ance in religious faith and the benefits of repre- 
sentative self-government. From East Dev- 
onshire in England came George Boone, the 
grandfather of the great pioneer, and from 
Wales came Edward Morgan, whose daughter 
Sarah became the wife of Squire Boone, 

21 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

Daniel's father. These were conspicuous rep- 
resentatives of the Society of Friends, drawn 
thither by the roseate representations of the 
great Quaker, William Penn, and by his ad- 
vanced views on popular government and re- 
ligious toleration. 11 Hither, too, from Ireland, 
whither he had gone from Denmark, came 
Morgan Bryan, settling in Chester County, 
prior to 1719; and his children, William, Jo- 
seph, James, and Morgan, who more than half 
a century later gave the name to Bryan's Sta- 
tion in Kentucky, were destined to play im- 
portant roles in the drama of westward migra- 
tion. 12 In September, 1734, Michael Finley 
from County Armagh, Ireland, presumably 
accompanied by his brother Archibald Finley, 
settled in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Ac- 
cording to the best authorities, Archibald Fin- 
ley was the father of John Finley, or Findlay as 
he signed himself, Boone's guide and compan- 
ion in his exploration of Kentucky in 1769- 
71. 13 To Pennsylvania also came Mordecai 
Lincoln, great-grandson of Samuel Lincoln, 
who had emigrated from England to Hingham, 

22 



THE CRADLE OF WESTWARD EXPANSION 

Massachusetts, as early as 1637. This Mor- 
decai Lincoln, who in 1720 settled in Chester 
County, Pennsylvania, the great-great-grand- 
father of President Lincoln, was the father 
of Sarah Lincoln, who was wedded to William 
Boone, and of Abraham Lincoln, who married 
Anne Boone, William's first cousin. Early 
settlers in Pennsylvania were members of the 
Hanks family, one of whom was the maternal 
grandfather of President Lincoln. 14 

No one race or breed of men can lay claim 
to exclusive credit for leadership in the hinter- 
land movement and the conquest of the West. 
Yet one particular stock of people, the Ulster 
Scots, exhibited with most completeness and 
picturesqueness a group of conspicuous quali- 
ties and attitudes which we now recognize to 
be typical of the American character as molded 
by the conditions of frontier life. Cautious, 
wary, and reserved, these Scots concealed be- 
neath a cool and calculating manner a relent- 
lessness in reasoning power and an intensity 
of conviction which glowed and burned with 
almost fanatical ardor. Strict in religious ob- 

23 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

servance and deep in spiritual fervor, they 
never lost sight of the main chance, combining 
a shrewd practicality with a wealth of devo- 
tion. It has been happily said of them that 
they kept the Sabbath and everything else they 
could lay their hands on. In the polity of 
these men religion and education went hand 
in hand; and they habitually settled together 
in communities in order that they might have 
teachers and preachers of their own choice and 
persuasion. 

In little-known letters and diaries of trav- 
elers and itinerant ministers may be found 
many quaint descriptions and faithful char- 
acterizations of the frontier settlers in their 
habits of life and of the scenes amidst which 
they labored. In a letter to Edmund Fan- 
ning, the cultured Robin Jones, agent of Lord 
Granville and Attorney-General of North 
Carolina, summons to view a piquant image 
of the western border and borderers: "The 
inhabitants are hospitable in their way, live in 
plenty and dirt, are stout, of great prowess in 
manly athletics; and, in private conversation, 

24 



THE CRADLE OF WESTWARD EXPANSION 

bold, impertinent, and vain. In the art of 
war (after the Indian manner) they are well- 
skilled, are enterprising and fruitful of strate- 
gies; and, when in action, are as bold and in- 
trepid as the ancient Romans. The Shawnese 
acknowledge them their superiors even in their 
own way of fighting. . . . [The land] may 
be truly called the land of the mountains, for 
they are so numerous that when you have 
reached the summit of one of them, you may 
see thousands of every shape that the imagi- 
nation can suggest, seeming to vie with each 
other which should raise his lofty head to touch 
the clouds. ... It seems to me that nature 
has been wanton in bestowing her blessings on 
that country." 15 

An excellent pen-picture of educational and 
cultural conditions in the backwoods of North 
Carolina, by one of the early settlers in the 
middle of the century, exhibits in all their bar- 
ren cheerlessness the hardships and limitations 
of life in the wilderness. The father of Wil- 
liam Few, the narrator, had trekked down from 
Maryland and settled in Orange County, some 

25 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

miles east of the little hamlet of Hillsborough. 
"In that country at that time there were no 
schools, no churches or parsons, or doctors or 
lawyers; no stores, groceries or taverns, nor 
do I recollect during the first two years any 
officer, ecclesiastical, civil or military, except a 
justice of the peace, a constable and two or 
three itinerant preachers. . . . These people 
had few wants, and fewer temptations to vice 
than those who lived in more refined society, 
though ignorant. They were more virtuous 
and more happy. ... A schoolmaster ap- 
peared and offered his services to teach the 
children of the neighborhood for twenty shill- 
ings each per year. ... In that simple state 
of society money was but little known; the 
schoolmaster was the welcome guest of his 
pupil, fed at the bountiful table and clothed 
from the domestic loom. ... In that country 
at that time there was great scarcity of 
books." 16 

The journals of itinerant ministers through 
the Valley of Virginia and the Carolina pied- 
mont zone yield precious mementoes of the 

26 



THE CRADLE OF WESTWARD EXPANSION 

people, their longing after the things of the 
spirit, and their pitiful isolation from the regu- 
lar preaching of the gospel. These mission- 
aries were true pioneers in this Old Southwest, 
ardent, dauntless, and heroic — carrying the 
word into remote places and preaching the gos- 
pel beneath the trees of the forest. In his 
journal (1755-6), the Rev. Hugh McAden, 
born in Pennsylvania of Scotch-Irish paren- 
tage, a graduate of Nassau Hall (1753), 
makes the unconsciously humorous observation 
that wherever he found Presbyterians he found 
people who "seemed highly pleased, and very 
desirous to hear the word" ; whilst elsewhere he 
found either dissension and defection to Bap- 
tist principles, or "no appearance of the life 
of religion." In the Scotch-Irish Presbyte- 
rian settlements in what is now Mecklenburg 
County, the cradle of American liberty, he 
found "pretty serious, judicious people" of the 
stamp of Moses, William, and James Alex- 
ander. While traveling in the upper country 
of South Carolina, he relates with gusto the 
story of "an old gentleman who said to the 

27 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

Governor of South Carolina, when he was in 
those parts, in treaty with the Cherokee In- 
dians that 'he had never seen a shirt, been in 
a fair, heard a sermon, or seen a minister in all 
his life.' Upon which the governor promised 
to send him up a minister, that he might hear 
one sermon before he died." The minister 
came and preached; and this was all the 
preaching that had been heard in the upper 
part of South Carolina before Mr. McAden's 
visit. 17 

Such, then, were the rude and simple people 
in the back country of the Old Southwest — 
the deliberate and self -controlled English, the 
aggressive, land-mongering Scotch-Irish, the 
buoyant Welsh, the thrifty Germans, the debo- 
nair French, the impetuous Irish, and the cal- 
culating Scotch. The lives they led were 
marked by independence of spirit, democratic 
instincts, and a forthright simplicity. In de- 
scribing the condition of the English settlers in 
the backwoods of Virginia, one of their num- 
ber, Doddridge, says: "Most of the articles 
were of domestic manufacture. There might 

28 



THE CRADLE OF WESTWARD EXPANSION 

have been incidentally a few things brought 
to the country for sale in a primitive way, but 
there was no store for general supply. The 
table furniture usually consisted of wooden 
vessels, either turned or coopered. Iron forks, 
tin cups, etc., were articles of rare and deli- 
cate luxury. The food was of the most whole- 
some and primitive kind. The richest meat, 
the finest butter, and best meal that ever de- 
lighted man's palate were here eaten with a 
relish which health and labor only know. The 
hospitality of the people was profuse and pro- 
verbial." 

The circumstances of their lives compelled 
the pioneers to become self-sustaining. Every 
immigrant was an adept at many trades. He 
built his own house, forged his own tools, and 
made his own clothes. At a very early date 
rifles were manufactured at the High Shoals 
of the Yadkin; Squire Boone, Daniel's brother, 
was an expert gunsmith. The difficulty of 
securing food for the settlements forced every 
man to become a hunter and to scour the for- 
est for wild game. Thus the pioneer, through 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

force of sheer necessity, became a dead shot — 
which stood him in good stead in the days of In- 
dian incursions and bloody retaliatory raids. 
Primitive in their games, recreations, and 
amusements, which not infrequently degener- 
ated into contests of savage brutality, the pio- 
neers always set the highest premium upon 
personal bravery, physical prowess, and skill 
in manly sports. At all public gatherings, 
general musters, "vendues" or auctions, and 
even funerals, whisky flowed with extraor- 
dinary freedom. It is worthy of record that 
among the effects of the Rev. Alexander 
Craighead, the famous teacher and organizer 
of Presbyterianism in Mecklenburg and the 
adjoining region prior to the Revolution, were 
found a punch bowl and glasses. 

The frontier life, with its purifying and 
hardening influence, bred in these pioneers in- 
tellectual traits which constitute the basis of 
the American character. The single-handed 
and successful struggle with nature in the tense 
solitude of the forest developed a spirit of in- 
dividualism, restive under control. On the 

30 



THE CRADLE OF WESTWARD EXPANSION 

other hand, the sense of sharing with others 
the arduous tasks and dangers of conquering 
the wilderness gave birth to a strong sense of 
solidarity and of human sympathy. With the 
lure of free lands ever before them, the pio- 
neers developed a restlessness and a nervous 
energy, blended with a buoyancy of spirit, 
which are fundamentally American. Yet this 
same untrammeled freedom occasioned a dis- 
regard for law and a defiance of established 
government which have exhibited themselves 
throughout the entire course of our history. 
Initiative, self-reliance, boldness in conception, 
fertility in resource, readiness in execution, 
acquisitiveness, inventive genius, appreciation 
of material advantages — these, shot through 
with a certain fine idealism, genial human sym- 
pathy, and a high romantic strain — are the 
traits of the American national type as it 
emerged from the Old Southwest. 



31 



CHAPTER III 

THE BACK COUNTRY AND THE BORDER 

Far from the bustle of the world, they live in the most de- 
lightful climate, and richest soil imaginable; they are every- 
where surrounded with beautiful prospects and sylvan scenes; 
lofty mountains, transparent streams, falls of water, rich 
valleys, and majestic woods; the whole interspersed with an 
infinite variety of flowering shrubs, constitute the landscape 
surrounding them; they are subject to few diseases; are gen- 
erally robust; and live in perfect liberty; they are ignorant 
of want and acquainted with but few vices. Their inex- 
perience of the elegancies of life precludes any regret that they 
possess not the means of enjoying them, but they possess what 
many princes would give half their dominion for, health, con- 
tent, and tranquillity of mind. 

— Andrew Buhnaby: Travels Through North 
America. 

THE two streams of Ulstermen, the 
greater through Philadelphia, the lesser 
through Charleston, which poured into the 
Carolinas toward the middle of the century, 
quickly flooded the back country. The former 
occupied the Yadkin Valley and the region to 
the westward, the latter the Waxhaws and the 
Anson County region to the northwest. The 

3% 



THE BACK COUNTRY AND THE BORDER 

first settlers were known as the "Pennsylvania 
Irish," because they had first settled in Penn- 
sylvania after migrating from the north of Ire- 
land ; while those who came by way of Charles- 
ton were known as the "Scotch-Irish." The 
former, who had resided in Pennsylvania long 
enough to be good judges of land, shrewdly 
made their settlements along the rivers and 
creeks. The latter, new arrivals and less ex- 
perienced, settled on thinner land toward the 
heads of creeks and water courses. 18 

Shortly prior to 1735, Morgan Bryan, his 
wife Martha, and eight children, together with 
other families of Quakers from Pennsylvania, 
settled upon a large tract of land on the north- 
west side of the Opeckon River near Win- 
chester. 19 A few years later they removed up 
the Virginia Valley to the Big Lick in the 
present Roanoke County, intent upon pushing 
westward to the very outskirts of civilization. 
In the autumn of 1748, leaving behind his 
brother William, who had followed him to 
Roanoke County, Morgan Bryan removed 
with his family to the Forks of the Yadkin 

33 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

River. 20 The Morgans, with the exception of 
Richard, who emigrated to Virginia, remained 
in Pennsylvania, spreading over Philadelphia 
and Bucks counties; while the Hanks and Lin- 
coln families found homes in Virginia — Mor- 
decai Lincoln's son, John, the great-grand- 
father of President Lincoln, removing from 
Berks to the Shenandoah Valley in 1765. On 
May 1, 1750, Squire Boone, his wife Sarah 
(Morgan) , and their eleven children — a verita- 
ble caravan, traveling like the patriarchs of 
old — started south; and tarried for a space, 
according to reliable tradition, on Linville 
Creek in the Virginia Valley. In 1752 they 
removed to the Forks of the Yadkin, and the 
following year received from Lord Granville 
three tracts of land, all situated in Rowan 
County. 21 About the hamlet of Salisbury, 
which in 1755 consisted of seven or eight log 
houses and the court house, there now rapidly 
gathered a settlement of people marked by 
strong individuality, sturdy independence, and 
virile self-reliance. The Boones and the Bry- 
ans quickly accommodated themselves to fron- 

34? 



THE BACK COUNTRY AND THE BORDER 

tier conditions and immediately began to 
take an active part in the local affairs of the 
county. Upon the organization of the county 
court Squire Boone was chosen justice of the 
peace; and Morgan Bryan was soon appear- 
ing as foreman of juries and director in road 
improvements. 

The Great Trading Path, leading from Vir- 
ginia to the towns of the Catawbas and other 
Southern Indians, crossed the Yadkin at the 
Trading Ford and passed a mile southeast of 
Salisbury. Above Sapona Town near the 
Trading Ford was Swearing Creek, which, ac- 
cording to constant and picturesque tradition, 
was the spot where the traders stopped to take 
a solemn oath never to reveal any unlawful 
proceedings that might occur during their so- 
journ among the Indians. 22 In his divertingly 
satirical "History of the Dividing Line" Wil- 
liam Byrd in 1728 thus speaks of this locality: 
"The Soil is exceedingly rich on both sides 
the Yadkin, abounding in rank Grass and 
prodigiously large Trees; and for plenty of 
Fish, Fowl and Venison, is inferior to No Part 

35 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

of the Northern Continent. There the 
Traders commonly lie Still for some days, to 
recruit their Horses' Flesh as well as to recover 
their own spirits." In this beautiful country 
happily chosen for settlement by Squire Boone 
— who erected his cabin on the east 'side of the 
Yadkin about a mile and a quarter from 
Alleman's, now Boone's, Ford — wild game 
abounded. Buffaloes were encountered in 
eastern North Carolina by Byrd while running 
the dividing line ; and in the upper country of 
South Carolina three or four men with their 
dogs could kill fourteen to twenty buffaloes in 
a single day. 23 Deer and bears fell an easy 
prey to the hunter; wild turkeys filled every 
thicket; the watercourses teemed with beaver, 
otter, and muskrat, as well as with shad and 
other delicious fish. Panthers, wildcats, and 
wolves overran the country; and the veracious 
Brother Joseph, while near the present 
Wilkesboro, amusingly records: "The wolves 
wh. are not like those in Germany, Poland, 
and L if land (because they fear men and don't 
easily come near) give us such music of six 

36 




COLONEL DANIEL BOONE 

From lithograph after Chester Harding in Jefferson Memorial 
Courtesy Missouri Historical Society 



THE BACK COUNTRY AND THE BORDER 

different cornets the like of wh. I have never 
heard in my life." 24 So plentiful was the 
game that the wild deer mingled with the cattle 
grazing over the wide stretches of luxuriant 
grass. 

In the midst of this sylvan paradise grew 
up Squire Boone's son, Daniel Boone, a Penn- 
sylvania youth of English stock, Quaker 
persuasion, and Baptist proclivities. 25 Seen 
through a glorifying halo after the lapse of 
a century and three quarters, he rises before 
us a romantic figure, poised and resolute, sim- 
ple, benign — as naive and shy as some wild 
thing of the primeval forest — five feet eight 
inches in height, with broad chest and shoul- 
ders, dark locks, genial blue eyes arched with 
fair eyebrows, thin lips and wide mouth, nose 
of slightly Roman cast, and fair, ruddy coun- 
tenance. Farming was irksome to this rest- 
less, nomadic spirit, who on the slightest excuse 
would exchange the plow and the grubbing- 
hoe for the long rifle and keen-edged hunting- 
knife. In a single day during the autumn 
season he would kill four or five deer; or as 

37 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

many bears as would make from two to three 
thousand pounds weight of bear-bacon. Fas- 
cinated with the forest, he soon found profit 
as well -as pleasure in the pursuit of game; 
and at excellent fixed prices he sold his peltries, 
most often at Salisbury, some thirteen miles 
away, sometimes at the store of the old "Dutch- 
man," George Hartman, on the Yadkin, and 
occasionally at Bethabara, the Moravian town 
sixty-odd miles distant. Skins were in such 
demand that they soon came to replace hard 
money, which was incredibly scarce in the back 
country, as a medium of exchange. Upon 
one occasion a caravan from Bethabara hauled 
three thousand pounds, upon another four 
thousand pounds, of dressed deerskins to 
Charleston. 20 So immense was this trade that 
the year after Boone's arrival at the Forks of 
Yadkin thirty thousand deerskins were ex- 
ported from the province of North Carolina. 
We like to think that the young Daniel Boone 
was one of that band of whom Brother Joseph, 
while in camp on the Catawba River (Novem- 
ber 12, 1752) wrote: "There are many 



THE BACK COUNTRY AND THE BORDER 

hunters about here, who live like Indians, they 
kill many deer selling their hides, and thus live 
without much work." 27 

In this very class of professional hunters, 
living like Indians, was thus bred the spirit 
of individual initiative and strenuous leader- 
ship in the great westward expansionist move- 
ment of the coming decade. An English 
traveler gives the following minute picture of 
the dress and accoutrement of the Carolina 
backwoodsman : 

Their whole dress is very singular, and not 
very materially different from that of the In- 
dians ; being a hunting shirt, somewhat resem- 
bling a waggoner's frock, ornamented with a 
great many fringes, tied round the middle with 
a broad belt, much decorated also, in which 
is fastened a tomahawk, an instrument that 
serves every purpose of defence and conven- 
ience ; being a hammer at one side and a sharp 
hatchet at the other; the shot bag and powder- 
horn, carved with a variety of whimsical fig- 
ures and devices, hang from their necks over 
one shoulder; and on their heads a flapped 
hat, of a reddish hue, proceeding from the in- 
tensely hot beams of the sun. 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

Sometimes they wear leather breeches, made 
of Indian dressed elk, or deer skins, but more 
frequently thin trowsers. 

On their legs they have Indian boots, or 
leggings, made of coarse woollen cloth, that 
either are wrapped round loosely and tied with 
garters, or laced upon the outside, and always 
come better than half-way up the thigh. 

On their feet they sometimes wear pumps of 
their own manufacture, but generally Indian 
moccossons, of their own construction also, 
which are made of strong elk's, or buck's skin, 
dressed soft as for gloves or breeches, drawn 
together in regular plaits over the toe, and 
lacing from thence round to the fore part of 
the middle of the ancle, without a seam in them, 
yet fitting close to the feet, and are indeed 
perfectly easy and pliant. 

Their hunting, or rifle shirts, they have also 
died in a variety of colours, some yellow, others 
red, some brown, and many wear them quite 
white. 28 

No less unique and bizarre, though less pic- 
turesque, was the dress of the women of the 
region — in particular of Surry County, North 
Carolina, as described by General William 
Lenoir : 

40 



THE BACK COUNTRY AND THE BORDER 

The women wore .linsey [flax] petticoats 
and 'bed-gowns' [like a dressing-sack], and 
often went without shoes in the summer. 
Some had bonnets and bed-gowns made of 
calico, but generally of linsey; and some of 
them wore men's hats. Their hair was com- 
monly clubbed. Once, at a large meeting, I 
noticed there but two women that had on long 
gowns. One of these was laced genteelly, and 
the body of the other was open, and the tail 
thereof drawn up and tucked in her apron or 
coat-string. 29 

While Daniel Boone was quietly engaged 
in the pleasant pursuits of the chase, a vast 
world-struggle of which he little dreamed was 
rapidly approaching a crisis. For three quar- 
ters of a century this titanic contest between 
France and England for the interior of the 
continent had been waged with slowly accumu- 
lating force. The irrepressible conflict had 
been formally inaugurated at Sault Ste. Marie 
in 1671, when Daumont de Saint Lusson, 
swinging aloft his sword, proclaimed the sover- 
eignty of France over "all countries, rivers, 
lakes, and streams . . . both those which have 

41 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

been discovered and those which may be dis- 
covered hereafter, in all their length and 
breadth, bounded on the one side by the seas 
of the North and of the West, and on the other 
by the South Sea." Just three months later, 
three hardy pioneers of Virginia, despatched 
upon their arduous mission by Colonel Abra- 
ham Wood in behalf of the English crown, 
had crossed the Appalachian divide ; and upon 
the banks of a stream whose waters slipped 
into the Ohio to join the Mississippi and the 
Gulf of Mexico, had carved the royal insignia 
upon the blazed trunk of a giant of the forest, 
the while crying: "Long live Charles the 
Second, by the grace of God, King of Eng- 
land, Scotland, France, Ireland and Virginia 
and of the territories thereunto belonging." 

La Salle's dream of a New France in the 
heart of America was blotted out in his tragic 
death upon the banks of the River Trinity 
(1687). Yet his mantle was to fall in turn 
upon the square shoulders of Le Moyne d'lber- 
ville and of his brother — the good, the constant 
Bienville, who after countless and arduous 

42 



THE BACK COUNTRY AND THE BORDER 

struggles laid firm the foundations of New 
Orleans. In the precious treasury of Margry 
we learn that on reaching Rochelle after his 
first voyage in 1699 Iberville in these prophetic 
words voices his faith: "If France does not 
immediately seize this part of America which 
is the most beautiful, and establish a colony 
which is strong enough to resist any which 
England may have, the English colonies (al- 
ready considerable in Carolina) will so thrive 
that in less than a hundred years they will be 
strong enough to seize all America." 30 But 
the world-weary Louis Quatorze, nearing his 
end, quickly tired of that remote and unpro- 
ductive colony upon the shores of the gulf, so 
industriously described in Paris as a "terres- 
trial paradise"; and the "paternal providence 
of Versailles" willingly yielded place to the 
monumental speculation of the great financier 
Antoine Crozat. In this Paris of prolific pro- 
motion and amazed credulity, ripe for the 
colossal scheme of Law, soon to blow to burst- 
ing-point the bubble of the Mississippi, the 
very songs in the street echoed flamboyant, 

43 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

half-satiric panegyrics upon the new Utopia, 
this Mississippi Land of Cockayne: 

It 's to-day no contribution 
To discuss the Constitution 
And the Spanish war 's forgot 
For a new Utopian spot; 
And the very latest phase 
Is the Mississippi craze. 31 

Interest in the new colony led to a great 
development of southwesterly trade from New 
France. Already the French coureurs de bois 
were following the water route from the Illi- 
nois to South Carolina. Jean Couture, a de- 
serter from the service in New France, jour- 
neyed over the Ohio and Tennessee rivers to 
that colony, and was known as "the greatest 
Trader and Traveller amongst the Indians for 
more than Twenty years." In 1714 young 
Charles Charleville accompanied an old trader 
from Crozat's colony on the gulf to the great 
salt-springs on the Cumberland, where a post 
for trading with the Shawanoes had already 
been established by the French. 32 But the 
British were preparing to capture this trade 

44 



THE BACK COUNTRY AND THE BORDER 

as early as 1694, when Tonti warned Viller- 
mont that Carolinians were already established 
on a branch of the Ohio. Four years later, 
Nicholson, Governor of Maryland, was urging 
trade with the Indians of the interior in the 
effort to displace the French. At an early 
date the coast colonies began to trade with the 
Indian tribes of the back country: the Ca- 
tawbas of the Yadkin Valley; the Cherokees, 
whose towns were scattered through Tennes- 
see; the Chickasaws, to the westward in north- 
ern Mississippi; and the Choctaws farther to 
the southward. Even before the beginning of 
the eighteenth century, when the South Caro- 
lina settlements extended scarcely twenty miles 
from the coast, English traders had established 
posts among the Indian tribes four hundred 
miles to the west of Charleston. Following 
the sporadic trading of individuals from Vir- 
ginia with the inland Indians, the heavily laden 
caravans of William Byrd were soon regularly 
passing along the Great Trading Path from 
Virginia to the towns of the Catawbas and 
other interior tribes of the Carolinas, delight - 

45 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

ing the easily captivated fancy and provoking 
the cupidity of the red men with "Guns, 
Powder, Shot, Hatchets (which the Indians 
call Tomahawks), Kettles, red and blue 
Planes, Duffields, Stroudwater blankets, and 
some Cutlary Wares, Brass Rings and other 
Trinkets." 33 In Pennsylvania, George Crog- 
han, the guileful diplomat, who was emissary 
from the Council to the Ohio Indians (1748), 
had induced "all-most all the Ingans in the 
Woods" to declare against the French; and 
was described by Christopher Gist as a "meer 
idol among his countrymen, the Irish traders." 
Against these advances of British trade and 
civilization, the French for four decades had 
artfully struggled, projecting tours of explor- 
ation into the vast medial valley of the conti- 
nent and constructing a chain of forts and 
trading-posts designed to establish their claims 
to the country and to hold in check the threat- 
ened English thrust from the east. Soon the 
wilderness ambassador of empire, Celoron de 
Bienville, was despatched by the far-visioned 

46 



THE BACK COTOTRY AND THE BORDER 

Galissoniere at Quebec to sow broadcast with 
ceremonial pomp in the heart of America the 
seeds of empire, grandiosely graven plates of 
lasting lead, in defiant yet futile symbol of 
the asserted sovereignty of France. Thus 
threatened in the vindication of the rights of 
their colonial sea-to-sea charters, the English 
threw off the lethargy with which they had 
failed to protect their traders, and in grants 
to the Ohio and Loyal land companies began 
resolutely to form plans looking to the occu- 
pation of the interior. But the French seized 
the English trading-house at Venango which 
they converted into a fort ; and Virginia's pro- 
test, conveyed by a calm and judicious young 
man, a surveyor, George Washington, availed 
not to prevent the French from seizing Cap- 
tain Trent's hastily erected military post at 
the forks of the Ohio and constructing there 
a formidable work, named Fort Duquesne. 
Washington, with his expeditionary force sent 
to garrison Captain Trent's fort, defeated 
Jumonville and his small force near Great 

47 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

Meadows (May, 1754) ; but soon after he was 
forced to surrender Fort Necessity to Coulon 
de Villiers. 

The titanic struggle, fittingly precipitated 
in the backwoods of the Old Southwest, was 
now on — a struggle in which the resolute pio- 
neers of these backwoods first seriously meas- 
ured their strength with the French and their 
copper-hued allies, and learned to surpass the 
latter in their own mode of warfare. The por- 
tentous conflict, destined to assure the eastern 
half of the continent to Great Britain, is a 
grim, prophetic harbinger of the mighty move- 
ment of the next quarter of a century into the 
twilight zone of the trans- Alleghany territory 



48 



CHAPTER IV 

THE INDIAN WAR 

All met in companies with their wives and children, and 
set about building little fortifications, to defend themselves 
from such barbarian and inhuman enemies, whom they con- 
cluded would be let loose upon them at pleasure. 

— The Reverend Hugh McAden: Diary, July, 
1755. 

LONG before the actual outbreak of hos- 
tilities powerful forces were gradually 
converging to produce a clash between the ag- 
gressive colonials and the crafty Indians. As 
the settlers pressed farther westward into the 
domain of the red men, arrogantly grazing 
their stock over the cherished hunting-grounds 
of the Cherokees, the savages, who were already 
well disposed toward the French, began to 
manifest a deep indignation against the British 
colonists because of this callous encroachment 
upon their territory. During the sporadic 
forays by scattered bands of Northern Indians 

49 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

upon the Catawbas and other tribes friendly 
to the pioneers the isolated settlements at the 
back part of the Carolinas suffered rude and 
sanguinary onslaughts. In the summer of 
1753 a party of northern Indians warring in 
the French interest made their appearance in 
Rowan County, which had just been organized, 
and committed various depredations upon the 
scattered settlements. To repel these attacks 
a band of the Catawbas sallied forth, encoun- 
tered a detached party of the enemy, and slew 
five of their number. Among the spoils, sig- 
nificantly enough, were silver crucifixes, beads, 
looking-glasses, tomahawks and other imple- 
ments of war, all of French manufacture. 34 

Intense rivalry for the good will of the 
near-by southern tribes existed between Vir- 
ginia and South Carolina. In strong remon- 
strance against the alleged attempt of Gover- 
nor Dinwiddie of Virginia to alienate the 
Cherokees, Catawbas, Muscogees, and Chicka- 
saws from South Carolina and to attach them 
to Virginia, Governor Glen of South Carolina 
made pungent observations to Dinwiddie: 

50 



THE INDIAN WAR 

"South Carolina is a weak frontier colony, and 
in case of invasion by the French would be 
their first object of attack. We have not 
much to fear, however, while we retain the 
affection of the Indians around us ; but should 
we forfeit that by any mismanagement on our 
part, or by the superior address of the French, 
we are in a miserable situation. The Chero- 
kees alone have several thousand gunmen well 
acquainted with every inch of the province 
. . . their country is the key to Carolina." 
By a treaty concluded at Saluda (November 
24, 1753), Glen promised to build the Chero- 
kees a fort near the lower towns, for the pro- 
tection of themselves and their allies ; and the 
Cherokees on their part agreed to become the 
subjects of the King of Great Britain and hold 
their lands under him. 35 This fort, erected 
this same year on the headwaters of the Sa- 
vannah, within gunshot distance of the impor- 
tant Indian town of Keowee, was named Fort 
Prince George. "It is a square," says the 
founder of the fort (Governor Glen to the 
Board of Trade, August 26, 1754), "with 

51 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

regular Bastions and four Ravelins it is near 
Two hundred foot from Salient Angle to Sali- 
ent Angle and is made of Earth taken out 
of the Ditch, secured with fachines and well 
rammed with a banquet on the Inside for the 
men to stand upon when they fire over, the 
Ravelins are made of Posts of Lightwood 
which is very durable, they are ten foot in 
length sharp pointed three foot and a half in 
the ground." 36 The dire need for such a fort 
in the back country was tragically illustrated 
by the sudden onslaught upon the "House 
of John Gutry & James Anshers" in York 
County by a party of sixty French Indians 
(December 16, 1754), who brutally murdered 
sixteen of the twenty-one persons present, and 
carried off as captives the remaining five. 37 

At the outbreak of the French and Indian 
War in 1754 North Carolina voted twelve 
thousand pounds for the raising of troops and 
several thousand pounds additional for the 
construction of forts — a sum considerably 
larger than that voted by Virginia. A regi- 
ment of two hundred and fifty men was placed 

52 



THE INDIAN WAR 

under the command of Colonel James Innes of 
the Cape Fear section; and the ablest officer 
under him was the young Irishman from the 
same section, Lieutenant Hugh Waddell. On 
June 3, 1754, Dinwiddie appointed Innes, his 
close friend, commander-in-chief of all the 
forces against the French; and immediately 
after the disaster at Great Meadows (July, 
1754), Innes took command. Within two 
months the supplies for the North Carolina 
troops were exhausted; and as Virginia then 
failed to furnish additional supplies, Colonel 
Innes had no recourse but to disband his troops 
and permit them to return home. Appointed 
governor of Fort Cumberland by General 
Braddock, he was in command there while 
Braddock advanced on his disastrous march. 

The lesson of Braddock's defeat (July 9, 
1755) was memorable in the history of the Old 
Southwest. Well might Braddock exclaim 
with his last breath: "Who would have 
thought it? . . . We shall know better how to 
deal with them another time." Led on by the 
reckless and fiery Beaujeu, wearing an Indian 

53 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

gorget about his neck, the savages from the 
protection of trees and rough defenses, a pre- 
pared ambuscade, poured a galling fire into 
the compact divisions of the English, whose 
scarlet coats furnished ideal targets. The ob- 
stinacy of the British commanders in refusing 
to permit their troops to fight Indian fashion 
was suicidal; for as Herman Alrichs wrote 
Governor Morris of Pennsylvania (July 22, 
1755) : "... the French and Indians had 
cast an Intrenchment across the road before 
our Army which they Discovered not Untill 
the [y] came Close up to it, from thence and 
both sides of the road the enemy kept a con- 
stant fireing on them, our Army being so con- 
fused, they could not fight, and they would 
not be admitted by the Gen 1 or Sir John St. 
Clair, to break thro' their Ranks and Take 
behind trees." 38 Daniel Boone, who went 
from North Carolina as a wagoner in the com- 
pany commanded by Edward Brice Dobbs, 
was on the battle-field; but Dobbs's company 
at the time was scouting in the woods. When 
the fierce attack fell upon the baggage train, 

54 



THE INDIAN WAR 

Boone succeeded in effecting his escape only 
by cutting the traces of his team and fleeing 
on one of the horses. To his dying day Boone 
continued to censure Braddock's conduct, and 
reprehended especially his fatal neglect to em- 
ploy strong flank-guards and a sufficient num- 
ber of Provincial scouts thoroughly acquainted 
with the wilderness and all the wiles and strate- 
gies of savage warfare. 

For a number of months following Brad- 
dock's defeat there was a great rush of the 
frightened people southward. In a letter to 
Dinwiddie, Washington expresses the appre- 
hension that Augusta, Frederick, and Hamp- 
shire County will soon be depopulated, as the 
whole back country is in motion toward the 
southern colonies. During this same summer 
Governor Arthur Dobbs of North Carolina 
made a tour of exploration through the west- 
ern part of the colony, seeking a site for a 
fort to guard the frontier. 39 The frontier com- 
pany of fifty men which was to garrison the 
projected fort was placed under the command 
of Hugh Waddell, now promoted to the rank 

55 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

of captain, though only twenty-one years old. 
In addition to Waddell's company, armed 
patrols were required for the protection of the 
Rowan County frontier; and during the sum- 
mer Indian alarms were frequent at the Mora- 
vian village of Bethabara, whose inhabitants 
had heard with distress on March 31st of the 
slaughter of eleven Moravians on the Mahoni 
and of the ruin of Gnadenhutten. Many of 
the settlers in the outlying districts of Rowan 
fled for safety to the refuge of the little village ; 
and frequently every available house, every 
place of temporary abode was filled with panic- 
stricken refugees. So persistent were the dep- 
redations of the Indians and so alarmed were 
the scattered Rowan settlers by the news of 
the murders and the destruction of Vaux's 
Fort in Virginia (June 25, 1756) that at a 
conference on July 5th the Moravians "de- 
cided to protect our houses with palisades, and 
make them safe before the enemy should in- 
vade our tract or attack us, for if the people 
were all going to retreat we would be the last 
left on the frontier and the first point of at- 

56 






•Fort Dobbs 




FORT.DOBBS 

Sketch made from official description of fort 













THE TRANSYLVANIA FORT 
AT BOONESBOROUGH 

Built by Daniel Boone and the pioneers from plans by Richard 
Henderson 



THE INDIAN WAR 

tack." By July 23d, they had constructed a 
strong defense for their settlement, afterward 
called the "Dutch Fort" by the Indians. The 
principal structure was a stockade, triangular 
in plan, some three hundred feet on a side, 
enclosing the principal buildings of the settle- 
ment; and the gateway was guarded by an 
observation tower. The other defense was a 
stockade embracing eight houses at the mill 
some distance away, around which a small 
settlement had sprung up. 40 

During the same year the fort planned by 
Dobbs was erected upon the site he had chosen 
— between Third and Fourth creeks; and the 
commissioners Richard Caswell and Francis 
Brown, sent out to inspect the fort, made the 
following picturesque report to the Assembly 
(December 21, 1756) : 

That they had likewise viewed the State of 
Fort Dobbs, and found it to be a good and Sub- 
stantial Building of the Dimentions following 
(that is to say) The Oblong Square fifty three 
feet by forty, the opposite Angles Twenty 
four feet and Twenty-Two In Height 
Twenty four and a half feet as by the Plan 

57 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

annexed Appears, The Thickness of the Walls 
which are made of Oak Logs regularly Dimin- 
ished from sixteen Inches to Six, it contains 
three floors and there may be discharged from 
each floor at one and the same time about one 
hundred Musketts the same is beautifully scit- 
uated in the fork of Fourth Creek a Branch 
of the Yadkin River. And that they also found 
under Command of Cap e Hugh Waddel Forty 
six Effective men Officers and Soldiers . . . 
the said Officers and Soldiers Appearing well 
and in good Spirits. 41 

As to the erection of a fort on the Tennessee, 
promised the Cherokees by South Carolina, 
difficulties between the governor of that prov- 
ince and of Virginia in regard to matters of 
policy and the proportionate share of expenses 
made effective cooperation between the two 
colonies well-nigh impossible. Glen, as we 
have seen, had resented Dinwiddie's efforts to 
win the South Carolina Indians over to Vir- 
ginia's interest. And Dinwiddie had been 
very indignant when the force promised him 
by the Indians to aid General Braddock did 
not arrive, attributing this defection in part 

58 



THE INDIAN WAR 

to Glen's negotiations for a meeting with the 
chieftains and in part to the influence of the 
South Carolina traders, who kept the Indians 
away by hiring them to go on long hunts for 
furs and skins. But there was no such con- 
tention between Virginia and North Caro- 
lina. Dinwiddie and Dobbs arranged (No- 
vember 6, 1755) to send a commission from 
these colonies to treat with the Cherokees and 
the Catawbas. Virginia sent two commis- 
sioners, Colonel William Byrd, third of that 
name, and Colonel Peter Randolph; while 
North Carolina sent one, Captain Hugh Wad- 
dell. Salisbury, North Carolina, was the 
place of rendezvous. The treaty with the Ca- 
tawbas was made at the Catawba Town, pre- 
sumably the village opposite the mouth of 
Sugaw Creek, in York County, South Caro- 
lina, on February 20-21, 1756; that with the 
Cherokees on Broad River, North Carolina, 
March 13-17. As a result of the negotiations 
and after the receipt of a present of goods, 
the Catawbas agreed to send forty warriors 
to aid Virginia within forty days; and the 

59 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

Cherokees, in return for presents and Vir- 
ginia's promise to contribute her proportion 
toward the erection of a strong fort, undertook 
to send four hundred warriors within forty- 
days, "as soon as the said fort shall be built." 
Virginia and North Carolina thus wisely- 
cooperated to "straighten the path" and 
"brighten the chain" between the white and 
the red men, in important treaties which have 
largely escaped the attention of historians. 42 

On May 25, 1756, a conference was held 
at Salisbury between King Heygler and war- 
riors of the Catawba nation on the one side 
and Chief Justice Henley, doubtless attended 
by Captain Waddell and his frontier company, 
on the other. King Heygler, following the 
lead set by the Cherokees, petitioned the Gov- 
ernor of North Carolina to send the Catawbas 
some ammunition and to "build us a fort for 
securing our old men, women and children 
when we turn out to fight the Enemy on their 
coming." The chief justice assured the King 
that the Catawbas would receive a necessary 
supply of ammunition (one hundred pounds of 

60 



THE INDIAN WAR 

gunpower and four hundred pounds of lead 
were later sent them) and promised to urge 
with the governor their request to have a fort 
built as soon as possible. Pathos not unmixed 
with dry humor tinges the eloquent appeal of 
good old King Heygler, ever the loyal friend 
of the whites, at this conference: 

I desire a stop may be put to the selling of 
strong Liquors by the White people to my 
people especially near the Indian nation. If 
the White people make strong drink, let them 
sell it to one another, or drink it in their own 
families. This will avoid a great deal of mis- 
chief which otherwise will happen from my 
people getting drunk and quarrelling with the 
White people. I have no strong prisons like 
you to confine them for it. Our only way is 
to put them under ground and all these ( point- 
ing proudly to his Warriors) will be ready to 
do that to those who shall deserve it. 43 

In response to this request, the sum of four 
thousand pounds was appropriated by the 
North Carolina Assembly for the erection of "a 
Fort on our western frontier to protect and se- 
cure the Catawbas" and for the support of two 

61 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

companies of fifty men each to garrison this 
and another fort building on the sea coast. 
The commissioners appointed for the purpose 
recommended (December 21, 1756) a site for 
the fort "near the Catawba nation"; and on 
January 20, 1757, Governor Dobbs reported: 
"We are now building a Fort in the midst of 
their towns at their own Request." The fort 
thereupon begun must have stood near the 
mouth of the South Fork of the Catawba 
River, as Dobbs says it was in the "midst" 
(r of their towns, which are situated a "few miles 
north and south of 38°" and might properly 
be included within a circle of thirty miles 
radius. 44 

During the succeeding months many dep- 
redations were committed by the Indians upon 
the exposed and scattered settlements. Had 
it not been for the protection afforded by all 
these forts, by the militia companies under 
Alexander Osborne of Rowan and Nathaniel 
Alexander of Anson, and by a special company 
of patrollers under Green and Moore, the back 

62 






THE INDIAN WAR 

settlers who had been so outrageously "pil- 
fered" by the Indians would have "retired 
from the Frontier into the inner settle- 
ments." 45 



63 



CHAPTER V 

IN DEFENSE OF CIVILIZATION 

We give thanks and praise for the safety and peace vouch- 
safed us by our Heavenly Father in these times of war. 
Many of our neighbors, driven hither and yon like deer 
before wild beasts, came to us for shelter, yet the accustomed 
order of our congregation life was not disturbed, no, not 
even by the more than 150 Indians who at sundry times passed 
by, stopping for a day at a time and being fed by us. 

— Wachovia Community Diary, 1757. 

WITH commendable energy and expedi- 
tion Dinwiddie and Dobbs, acting in 
concert, initiated steps for keeping the engage- 
ments conjointly made by the two colonies 
with the Cherokees and the Catawbas in the 
spring and summer of 1756. Enlisting sixty 
men, "most of them Artificers, with Tools and 
Provisions," Major Andrew Lewis proceeded 
in the late spring to Echota in the Cherokee 
country. Here during the hot summer 
months they erected the Virginia Fort on the 
path from Virginia, upon the northern bank 

64 



IN DEFENSE OF CIVILIZATION 

of the Little Tennessee, nearly opposite the 
Indian town of Echota and about twenty-five 
miles southwest of Knoxville. 46 While the 
fort was in process of construction, the Chero- 
kees were incessantly tampered with by emis- 
saries from the Nuntewees and the Savannahs 
in the French interest, and from the French 
themselves at the Alibamu Fort. So effective 
were these machinations, supported by extrav- 
agant promises and doubtless rich bribes, that 
the Cherokees soon were outspokenly express- 
ing their desire for a French fort at Great 
Tellico. 

Dinwiddie welcomed the departure from 
America of Governor Glen of South Caro- 
lina, who in his opinion had always acted con- 
trary to the king's interest. From the new 
governor, William Henry Lyttelton, who ar- 
rived in Charleston on June 1, 1756, he hoped 
to secure effective cooperation in dealing with 
the Cherokees and the Catawbas. This hope 
was based upon Lyttelton's recognition, as 
stated in Dinwiddie's words, of the "Necessity 
of strict Union between the whole Colonies, 

65 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

with't any of them considering their particular 
Interest separate from the general Good of 
the whole." After constructing the fort 
"with't the least assistance from South Caro- 
lina," Major Lewis happened by accident 
upon a grand council being held in Echota in 
September. At that time he discovered to his 
great alarm that the machinations of the 
French had already produced the greatest 
imaginable change in the sentiment of the 
Cherokees. Captain Raymond Demere of the 
Provincials, with two hundred English troops, 
had arrived to garrison the fort; but the head 
men of all the Upper Towns were secretly in- 
fluenced to agree to write a letter to Captain 
Demere, ordering him to return immediately 
to Charleston with all the troops under his 
command. At the grand council, Atta-kulla- 
kulla, the great Cherokee chieftain, passion- 
ately declared to the head men, who listened 
approvingly, that "as to the few soldiers of 
Captain Demere that was there, he would take 
their Guns, and give them to his young men 
to hunt with and as to their clothes they would 

66 



IN DEFENSE OF CIVILIZATION 

soon be worn out and their skins would be 
tanned, and be of the same colour as theirs, 
and that they should live among them as 
slaves." With impressive dignity Major 
Lewis rose and earnestly pleaded for the ob- 
servance of the terms of the treaty solemnly 
negotiated the preceding March. In re- 
sponse, the crafty and treacherous chieftains 
desired Lewis to tell the Governor of Virginia 
that "they had taken up the Hatchet against 
all Nations that were Enemies to the English" ; 
but Lewis, an astute student of Indian psy- 
chology, rightly surmised that all their glib 
professions of friendship and assistance were 
"only to put a gloss on their knavery." 47 So 
it proved; for instead of the four hundred 
warriors promised under the treaty for service 
in Virginia, the Cherokees sent only seven war- 
riors, accompanied by three women. Al- 
though the Cherokees petitioned Virginia for 
a number of men to garrison the Virginia fort, 
Dinwiddie postponed sending the fifty men 
provided for by the Virginia Assembly until 
he could reassure himself in regard to the 

67 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

"Behaviour and Intention" of the treacherous 
Indian allies. This proved to be a prudent 
decision; for not long after its erection the 
Virginia fort was destroyed by the Indians. 

Whether on account of the dissatisfaction 
expressed by the Cherokees over the erection 
of the Virginia fort or because of a recognition 
of the mistaken policy of garrisoning a work 
erected by Virginia with troops sent from 
Charleston, South Carolina immediately pro- 
ceeded to build another stronghold on the 
southern bank of the Tennessee at the mouth 
of Tellico River, some seven miles from the 
site of the Virginia fort ; and here were posted 
twelve great guns, brought thither at immense 
labor through the wilderness. 48 To this fort, 
named Fort Loudoun in honor of Lord Lou- 
doun, then commander-in-chief of all the Eng- 
lish forces in America, the Indians allured arti- 
sans by donations of land ; and during the next 
three or four years a little settlement sprang 
up there. 

The frontiers of Virginia suffered most from 
the incursions of hostile Indians during the 

68 



IN DEFENSE OF CIVILIZATION 

fourteen months following May 1, 1755. In 
July, the Rev. Hugh McAden records that he 
preached in Virginia on a day set apart for 
fasting and prayer "on account of the wars 
and many murders, committed by the savage 
Indians on the back inhabitants." On July 
30th a large party of Shawano Indians fell 
upon the New River settlement and wiped it 
out of existence. William Ingles was absent 
at the time of the raid; and Mrs. Ingles, who 
was captured, afterward effected her escape. 41 ' 
The following summer (June 25, 1756), Fort 
Vaux on the headwaters of the Roanoke, under 
the command of Captain John Smith, was cap- 
tured by about one hundred French and In- 
dians, who burnt the fort, killed John Smith 
junior, John Robinson, John Tracey and John 
Ingles, wounded four men, and captured twen- 
ty-two men, women, and children. Among 
the captured was the famous Mrs. Mary 
Ingles, whose husband, John Ingles, was 
killed; but after being "carried away into 
Captivity, amongst whom she was barbarously 
treated," according to her own statement, she 

69 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

finally escaped and returned to Virginia. 50 
The frontier continued to be infested by- 
marauding bands of French and Indians; and 
Dinwiddie gloomily confessed to Dobbs (July 
22d) : "I apprehend that we shall always be 
harrass'd with fly'g Parties of these Banditti 
unless we form an Expedit'n ag'st them, to 
attack 'em in y'r Towns." 51 Such an expedi- 
tion, known as the Sandy River Expedition, 
had been sent out in February to avenge the 
massacre of the New River settlers; but the 
enterprise engaged in by about four hundred 
Virginians and Cherokees under Major An- 
drew Lewis and Captain Richard Pearis, 
proved a disastrous failure. Not a single In- 
dian was seen ; and the party suffered extraor- 
dinary hardships and narrowly escaped star- 
vation. 52 

In conformity with his treaty obligations 
with the Catawbas, Governor Dobbs commis- 
sioned Captain Hugh Waddell to erect the 
fort promised the Catawbas at the spot chosen 
by the commissioners near the mouth of the 
South Fork of the Catawba River. This fort, 

70 



IN DEFENSE OF CIVILIZATION 

for which four thousand pounds had been ap- 
propriated, was for the most part completed 
by midsummer, 1757. But owing, it appears, 
both to the machinations of the French and to 
the intermeddling of the South Carolina 
traders, who desired to retain the trade of the 
Catawbas for that province, Oroloswa, the Ca- 
tawba King Heygler, sent a "talk" to Gov- 
ernor Lyttelton, requesting that North Caro- 
lina desist from the work of construction and 
that no fort be built except by South Carolina. 
Accordingly, Governor Dobbs ordered Cap- 
tain Waddell to discharge the workmen (Au- 
gust 11, 1757) 53 ; and every effort was made for 
many months thereafter to conciliate the Ca- 
tawbas, erstwhile friends of North Carolina. 
The Catawba fort erected by North Carolina 
was never fully completed; and several years 
later South Carolina, having succeeded in 
alienating the Catawbas from North Carolina, 
which colony had given them the best possible 
treatment, built for them a fort 54 at the mouth 
of Line Creek on the east bank of the Catawba 
River. 

71 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

In the spring and summer of 1757 the long- 
expected Indian allies arrived in Virginia, as 
many as four hundred by May — Cherokees, 
Catawbas, Tuscaroras, and Nottaways. But 
Dinwiddie was wholly unable to use them ef- 
fectively; and in order to provide amusement 
for them, he directed that they should go "a 
scalping" with the whites — "a barbarous 
method of war," frankly acknowledged the 
governor, "introduced by the French, which we 
are oblidged to follow in our own defense." 
Most of the Indian allies discontentedly re- 
turned home before the end of the year, but 
the remainder waited until the next year, to 
take part in the campaign against Fort Du- 
quesne. Three North Carolina companies, 
composed of trained soldiers and hardy fron- 
tiersmen, went through this campaign under 
the command of Major Hugh Waddell, the 
"Washington of North Carolina." Long of 
limb and broad of chest, powerful, lithe, and 
active, Waddell was an ideal leader for this 
arduous service, being fertile in expedient and 
skilful in the employment of Indian tactics. 

72 



IN DEFENSE OF CIVILIZATION 

With true provincial pride Governor Dobbs 
records that Waddell "had great honor done 
him, being employed in all reconnoitring par- 
ties, and dressed and acted as an Indian; and 
his sergeant, Rogers, took the only Indian pris- 
oner, who gave Mr. Forbes certain intelligence 
of the forces in Fort Duquesne, upon which 
they resolved to proceed." This apparently 
trivial incident is remarkable, in that it proved 
to be the decisive factor in a campaign that 
was about to be abandoned. The information 
in regard to the state of the garrison at Fort 
Duquesne, secured from the Indian, for the 
capture of whom two leading officers had of- 
fered a reward of two hundred and fifty 
pounds, emboldened Forbes to advance rather 
than to retire. Upon reaching the fort (No- 
vember 25th) , he found it abandoned by the 
enemy. Sergeant Rogers never received the 
reward promised by General Forbes and the 
other English officer ; but some time afterward 
he was compensated by a modest sum from 
the colony of North Carolina. 55 

A series of unfortunate occurrences, chiefly 
73 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

the fault of the whites, soon resulted in the 
precipitation of a terrible Indian outbreak. A 
party of Cherokees, returning home in May, 
1758, seized some stray horses on the frontier 
of Virginia — never dreaming of any wrong, 
says an old historian, as they saw it frequently 
done by the whites. The owners of the horses, 
hastily forming a party, went in pursuit of 
the Indians and killed twelve or fourteen of 
the number. The relatives of the slain In- 
dians, greatly incensed, vowed vengeance upon 
the whites. 56 Nor was the tactless conduct of 
Forbes calculated to quiet this resentment; for 
when Atta-kulla-kulla and nine other chieftains 
deserted in disgust at the treatment accorded 
them, they were pursued by Forbes's orders, 
apprehended and disarmed. 57 This rude treat- 
ment, coupled with the brutal and wanton mur- 
der of some Cherokee hunters a little earlier, 
by an irresponsible band of Virginians under 
Captain Robert Wade, still further aggra- 
vated the Indians. 58 

Incited by the French, who had fled to the 
southward after the fall of Fort Duquesne, 

74 



IN DEFENSE OF CIVILIZATION 

parties of bloodthirsty young Indians rushed 
down upon the settlements and left in their 
path death and desolation along the frontiers 
of the Carolinas. 59 On the upper branch of 
the Yadkin and below the South Yadkin near 
Fort Dobbs twenty-two whites fell in swift 
succession before the secret onslaughts of the 
savages from the lower Cherokee towns. 00 
Many of the settlers along the Yadkin fled to 
the Carolina Fort at Bethabara and the stock- 
ade at the mill; and the sheriff of Rowan 
County suffered siege by the Cherokees, in his 
home, until rescued by a detachment under 
Brother Loesch from Bethabara. While 
many families took refuge in Fort Dobbs, 
frontiersmen under Captain Morgan Bryan 
ranged through the mountains to the west of 
Salisbury and guarded the settlements from 
the hostile incursions of the savages. So 
gravely alarmed were the Rowan settlers, com- 
pelled by the Indians to desert their planting 
and crops, that Colonel Harris was despatched 
post-haste for aid to Cape Fear, arriving 
there on July 1st. With strenuous energy 

75 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

Captain Waddell, then stationed in the east, 
rushed two companies of thirty men each to 
the rescue, sending by water-carriage six 
swivel guns and ammunition on before him; 
and these reinforcements brought relief at last 
to the harassed Rowan frontiers. 61 During 
the remainder of the year, the borders were 
kept clear by bold and tireless rangers — under 
the leadership of expert Indian fighters of the 
stamp of Griffith Rutherford and Morgan 
Bryan. 

When the Cherokee warriors who had 
wrought havoc along the North Carolina bor- 
der in April arrived at their town of Settiquo, 
they proudly displayed the twenty -two scalps 
of the slain Rowan settlers. Upon the de- 
mand for these scalps by Captain Demere at 
Fort Loudon and under direction of Atta- 
kulla-kulla, the Settiquo warriors surrendered 
eleven of the scalps to Captain Demere who, 
according to custom in time of peace, buried 
them. New murders on Pacolet and along 
the Virginia Path, which occurred shortly 
afterward, caused gloomy forebodings; and it 

76 



IN DEFENSE OF CIVILIZATION 

was plain, says a contemporary gazette, that 
"the lower Cherokees were not satisfied with 
the murder of the Rowan settlers, but intended 
further mischief." 62 On October 1st and 
again on October 31st, Governor Dobbs re- 
ceived urgent requests from Governor Lyttel- 
ton, asking that the North Carolina provin- 
cials and militia cooperate to bring him assist- 
ance. Although there was no law requiring 
the troops to march out of the province and 
the exposed frontiers of North Carolina sorely 
needed protection, Waddell, now commis- 
sioned colonel, assembled a force of five small 
companies and marched to the aid of Governor 
Lyttelton. But early in January, 1760, while 
on the march, Waddell received a letter from 
Lyttelton, informing him that the assistance 
was not needed and that a treaty of peace had 
been negotiated with the Cherokees. 03 



77 



CHAPTER VI 

CRUSHING THE CHEROKEES 

Thus ended the Cherokee war, which was among the last 
humbling strokes given to the expiring power of France in 
North America. 

— Hewatt: An Historical Account of the Rise and 
Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina 
and Georgia. 1779. 

GOVERNOR LYTTELTON'S treaty 
of "peace," negotiated with the Chero- 
kees at the close of 1759, was worse than a 
crime: it was a crass and hideous blunder. 
His domineering attitude and tyrannical treat- 
ment of these Indians had aroused the bitterest 
animosity. Yet he did not realize that it was 
no longer safe to trust their word. No sooner 
did the governor withdraw his army from the 
borders than the cunning Cherokees, whose pas- 
sions had been inflamed by what may fairly be 
called the treacherous conduct of Lyttelton, 
rushed down with merciless ferocity upon the 

78 



CRUSHING THE CHEROKEES 

innocent and defenseless families on the fron- 
tier. On February 1, 1760, while a large party 
(including the family of Patrick Calhoun), 
numbering in all about one hundred and fifty 
persons, were removing from the Long Cane 
settlement to Augusta, they were suddenly 
attacked by a hundred mounted Cherokees, 
who slaughtered about fifty of them. After 
the massacre, many of the children were found 
helplessly wandering in the woods. One man 
alone carried to Augusta no less than nine of 
the pitiful innocents, some horribly mutilated 
with the tomahawk, others scalped, and all yet 
alive. 

Atrocities defying description continued to 
be committed, and many people were slain. 
The Cherokees, under the leadership of Si- 
lou-ee, or the Young Warrior of Estatoe, the 
Round O, Tiftoe, and others, were baffled in 
their persistent efforts to capture Fort Prince 
George. On February 16th the crafty Oconos- 
tota appeared before the fort and under the 
pretext of desiring some white man to accom- 
pany him on a visit to the governor on urgent 

79 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

business, lured the commander, Lieutenant 
Coytomore, and two attendants to a confer- 
ence outside the gates. At a preconceived sig- 
nal a volley of shots rang out ; the two attend- 
ants were wounded, and Lieutenant Coyto- 
more, riddled with bullets, fell dead. En- 
raged by this act of treachery, the garrison put 
to death the Indian hostages within. During 
the abortive attack upon the fort, Oconostota, 
unaware of the murder of the hostages, 
was heard shouting above the din of 
battle: "Fight strong, and you shall be re- 
lieved." 64 

Now began the dark days along the Rowan 
border, which were so sorely to test human en- 
durance. Many refugees fortified themselves 
in the different stockades; and Colonel Hugh 
Waddell with his redoubtable frontier com- 
pany of Indian-fighters awaited the onslaught 
of the savages, who were reported to have 
passed through the mountain defiles and to be 
approaching along the foot-hills. The story of 
the investment of Fort Dobbs and the splen- 
didly daring sortie of Waddell and Bailey is 

80 



CRUSHING THE CHEROKEES 

best told in Waddell's report to Governor 
Dobbs (February 29, 1760) : 

For several Days I observed a small party 
of Indians were constantly about the fort, I 
sent out several parties after them to no pur- 
pose, the Evening before last between 8 & 9 
o'clock I found by the Dogs making an un- 
common Noise there must be a party nigh a 
Spring which we sometimes use. As my Gar- 
rison is but small, and I was apprehensive it 
might be a scheme to draw out the Garrison, 
I took our Capt. Bailie who with myself and 
party made up ten: We had not marched 
300 yds. from the fort when we were attacked 
by at least 60 or 70 Indians. I had given 
my party Orders not to fire until I gave the 
word, which they punctually observed: We 
reed the Indians' fire : When I perceived they 
had almost all fired, I ordered my party to 
fire which We did not further than 12 steps 
each loaded with a Bullet and 7 Buck Shot, 
they had nothing to cover them as they were 
advancing either to tomahawk us or make us 
Prisoners : They found the fire very hot from 
so small a Number which a good deal confused 
them: I then ordered my party to retreat, as 
I found the Instant our skirmish began an- 
other party had attacked the fort, upon our 
reinforcing the garrison the Indians were soon 

81 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

repulsed with I am sure a considerable Loss, 
from what I myself saw as well as those I can 
confide in they cou'd not have less than 10 or 
12 killed and wounded; The next Morning we 
found a great deal of Blood and one dead 
whom I suppose they cou'd not find in the 
night. On my side I had 2 Men wounded one 
of whom I am afraid will die as he is scalped, 
the other is in way of Recovery, and one boy 
killed near the fort whom they durst not ad- 
vance to scalp. I expected they would have 
paid me another visit last night, as they attack 
all Fortifications by Night, but find they did 
not like their Reception. 65 

Alarmed by Waddell's "offensive-defen- 
sive," the Indians abandoned the siege. Rob- 
ert Campbell, Waddell's ranger, who was 
scalped in this engagement, subsequently re- 
covered from his wounds and was recompensed 
by the colony with the sum of twenty pounds. 66 

In addition to the frontier militia, four in- 
dependent companies were now placed under 
Waddell's command. Companies of volun- 
teers scoured the woods in search of the lurking 
Indian foe. These rangers, who were clad in 
hunting-shirts and buckskin leggings, and who 



CRUSHING THE CHEROKEES 

employed Indian tactics in fighting, were cap- 
tained by such hardy leaders as the veteran 
Morgan Bryan, the intrepid Griffith Ruther- 
ford, the German partisan, Martin Phifer 
(Pfeiffer), and Anthony Hampton, the father 
of General Wade Hampton. They visited 
periodically a chain of "forest castles" erected 
by the settlers — extending all the way from 
Fort Dobbs and the Moravian fortifications in 
the Wachau to Samuel Stalnaker's stockade 
on the Middle Fork of the Holston in Vir- 
ginia. About the middle of March, thirty 
volunteer Rowan County rangers encountered 
a band of forty Cherokees, who fortified them- 
selves in a deserted house near the Catawba 
River. The famous scout and hunter, John 
Perkins, assisted by one of his bolder com- 
panions, crept up to the house and flung 
lighted torches upon the roof. One of the In- 
dians, as the smoke became suffocating and 
the flames burned hotter, exclaimed: "Better 
for one to die bravely than for all to perish 
miserably in the flames," and darting forth, 
dashed rapidly hither and thither, in order to 

83 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

draw as many shots as possible. This act of 
superb self-sacrifice was successful; and while 
the rifles of the whites, who riddled the brave 
Indian with balls, were empty, the other sav- 
ages made a wild dash for liberty. Seven fell 
thus under the deadly rain of bullets ; but many 
escaped. Ten of the Indians, all told, lost 
their scalps, for which the volunteer rangers 
were subsequently paid one hundred pounds 
by the colony of North Carolina. 67 

Beaten back from Fort Dobbs, sorely de- 
feated along the Catawba, hotly pursued by 
the. rangers, the Cherokees continued to lurk 
in the shadows of the dense forests, and at 
every opportunity to fall suddenly upon way- 
faring settlers and isolated cabins remote from 
any stronghold. On March 8th William Fish, 
his son, and Thompson, a companion, were 
riding along the "trace," in search of provi- 
sions for a group of families fortified on the 
Yadkin, when a flight of arrows hurtled from 
the cane-brake, and Fish and his son fell dead. 
Although pierced with two arrows, one in the 
hip and one clean through his body, Thomp- 

84. 



CRUSHING THE CHEROKEES 

son escaped upon his fleet horse; and after a 
night of ghastly suffering finally reached the 
Carolina Fort at Bethabara. The good Dr. 
Bonn, by skilfully extracting the barbed 
shafts from his body, saved Thompson's life. 
The pious Moravians rejoiced over the recov- 
ery of the brave messenger, whose sensational 
arrival gave them timely warning of the close 
proximity of the Indians. While feeding 
their cattle, settlers were shot from ambush 
by the lurking foe; and on March 11th, a fam- 
ily barricaded within a burning house, which 
they were defending with desperate courage, 
were rescued in the nick of time by the militia. 
No episode from Fenimore Cooper's Leather- 
stocking Tales surpasses in melancholy inter- 
est Harry Hicks's heroic defense of his little 
fort on Bean Island Creek. Surrounded by 
the Indians, Hicks and his family took refuge 
within the small outer palisade around his 
humble home. Fighting desperately against 
terrific odds, he was finally driven from his 
yard into his log cabin, which he continued 
to defend with dauntless courage. With 

85 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

every shot he tried to send a redskin to the 
happy hunting-grounds; and it was only after 
his powder was exhausted that he fell, fighting 
to the last, beneath the deadly tomahawk. So 
impressed were the Indians by his bravery that 
they spared the life of his wife and his little 
son; and these were afterward rescued by 
Waddell when he marched to the Cherokee 
towns in 1761. 68 

The kindly Moravians had always enter- 
tained with generous hospitality the roving 
bands of Cherokees, who accordingly held 
them in much esteem and spoke of Bethabara 
as "the Dutch Fort, where there are good peo- 
ple and much bread." But now, in these 
dread days, the truth of their daily text was 
brought forcibly home to the Moravians: 
"Neither Nehemiah nor his brethren put off 
their clothes, but prayed as they watched." 
With Bible in one hand and rifle in the other, 
the inhabitant of Wachovia sternly marched 
to religious worship. No Puritan of bleak 
New England ever showed more resolute cour- 
age or greater will to defend the hard-won 



CRUSHING THE CHEROKEES 

outpost of civilization than did the pious Mo- 
ravian of the Wachau. At the new settlement 
of Bethania on Easter Day, more than four 
hundred souls, including sixty rangers, listened 
devoutly to the eloquent sermon of Bishop 
Spangenberg concerning the way of salvation 
— the while their arms, stacked without the 
Gemein Haus, were guarded by the watchful 
sentinel. On March 14th the watchmen at 
Bethania with well-aimed shots repelled the 
Indians, whose hideous yells of baffled rage 
sounded down the wind like "the howling of 
a hundred wolves." Religion was no protec- 
tion against the savages; for three ministers 
journeying to the present site of Salem were 
set upon by the red men — one escaping, an- 
other suffering capture, and the third, a Bap- 
tist, losing his life. A little later word came 
to Fort Dobbs that John Long and Robert 
Gillespie of Salisbury had been shot from am- 
bush and scalped — Long having been pierced 
with eight bullets and Gillespie with seven. 69 

There is one beautiful incident recorded by 
the Moravians, which has a truly symbolic sig- 

87 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

nificance. While the war was at its height, 
a strong party of Cherokees, who had lost their 
chief, planned in retaliation to attack Bethab- 
ara. "When they went home," sets forth 
the Moravian Diary, "they said they had been 
to a great town, where there were a great many 
people, where the bells rang often, and during 
the night, time after time, a horn was blown, 
so that they feared to attack the town and 
had taken no prisoners." The trumpet of the 
watchman, announcing the passing of the hour, 
had convinced the Indians that their plans for 
attack were discovered; and the regular eve- 
ning bell, summoning the pious to prayer, rang 
in the stricken ears of the red men like the 
clamant call to arms. 

Following the retirement from office of Gov- 
ernor Lyttelton, Lieutenant-Governor Bull 
proceeded to prosecute the war with vigor. 
On April 1, 1760, twelve hundred men under 
Colonel Archibald Montgomerie arrived at 
Charleston, with instructions to strike an im- 
mediate blow and to relieve Fort Loudon, then 
invested by the Cherokees. With his own 

88 




COLONEL ARCHIBALD MONTGOMERIE (1726-1796) 

Mezzotint by S. W. Reynolds after the original painting by 
C. F. v. Breda 



CRUSHING THE CHEROKEES 

force, two hundred and ninety-five South 
Carolina Rangers, forty picked men of the 
new "levies," and "a good number of guides," 
Montgomerie moved from Fort Ninety- Six on 
May 28th. On the first of June, crossing 
Twelve-Mile River, Montgomerie began the 
campaign in earnest, devastating and burning 
every Indian village in the Valley of Keowee, 
killing and capturing more than a hundred of 
the Cherokees, and destroying immense stores 
of corn. Receiving no reply to his summons 
to the Cherokees of the Middle and Upper 
Towns to make peace or suffer like treatment, 
Montgomerie took up his march from Fort 
Prince George on June 24th, resolved to carry 
out his threat. On the morning of the 27th, 
he was drawn into an ambuscade within six 
miles of Et-chow-ee, eight miles south of the 
present Franklin, North Carolina, a mile and 
a half below Smith's Bridge, and was vigor- 
ously attacked from dense cover by some six 
hundred and thirty warriors led by Si-lou-ee. 
Fighting with" Indian tactics, the Provincial 
Rangers under Patrick Calhoun particularly 

89 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

distinguished themselves; and the blood-curd- 
ling yells of the painted savages were re- 
sponded to by the wild huzzas of the kilted 
Highlanders who, waving their Scotch bon- 
nets, impetuously charged the redskins and 
drove them again and again from their lurk- 
ing-places. Nevertheless Montgomerie lost 
from eighty to one hundred in killed and 
wounded, while the loss of the Indians was 
supposed to be about half the loss of the whites. 
Unable to care for his wounded and lacking 
the means of removing his baggage, Montgom- 
erie silently withdrew his forces. In so doing, 
he acknowledged defeat, since he was com- 
pelled to abandon his original intention of re- 
lieving the beleaguered garrison of Fort Lou- 
don. 

Captain Demere and his devoted little band, 
who had been resolutely holding out, were now 
left to their tragic fate. After the bread was 
exhausted, the garrison was reduced to the 
necessity of eating dogs and horses; and the 
loyal aid of the Indian wives of some of the 
garrison, who secretly brought them supplies 

90 



CRUSHING THE CHEROKEES 

of food daily, enabled them to hold out still 
longer. Realizing at last the futility of pro- 
longing the hopeless contest, Captain Demere 
surrendered the fort on August 8, 1760. At 
daylight the next morning, while on the march 
to Fort Prince George, the soldiers were set 
upon by the treacherous Cherokees, who at 
the first onset killed Captain Demere and 
twenty-nine others. A humane chieftain, 
Outassitus, says one of the gazettes of the day, 
"went around the field calling upon the In- 
dians to desist, and making such representa- 
tions to them as stopped the further progress 
and effects of their barbarous and brutal rage," 
which expressed itself in scalping and hacking 
off the arms and legs of the defenseless whites. 
Atta-kulla-kulla, who was friendly to the 
whites, claimed Captain Stuart, the second 
officer, as his captive, and bore him away by 
stealth. After nine days' journey through 
the wilderness they encountered an advance 
party under Major Andrew Lewis, sent out 
by Colonel Byrd, head of a relieving army, 
to rescue and succor any of the garrison who 

91 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

might effect their escape. Thus Stuart was 
restored to his friends. This abortive and 
tragic campaign, in which the victory lay con- 
clusively with the Indians, ended when Byrd 
disbanded his new levies and Montgomerie 
sailed from Charleston for the north (August, 
1760). 

During the remainder of the year, the prov- 
ince of North Carolina remained free of fur- 
ther alarms from the Indians. But the view 
was generally entertained that one more joint 
effort of North Carolina, South Carolina, and 
Virginia would have to be made in order to 
humble the Cherokees. At the sessions of the 
North Carolina Assembly in November and 
again in December, matters in dispute between 
Governor Dobbs and the representatives of the 
people made impossible the passage of a pro- 
posed aid bill, providing for five hundred men 
to cooperate with Virginia and South Caro- 
lina. Nevertheless volunteers in large num- 
bers patriotically marched from North Caro- 
lina to Charleston and the Congaree (Decem- 
ber, 1760, to April, 1761), to enlist in the fa- 

92 




COLONEL JAMES GRANT (1720-1806), 

From I. Kay's Original Portraits (1798) 



, 



CRUSHING THE CHEROKEES 

mous regiment being organized by Colonel 
Thomas Middleton. 70 On March 31, 1761, 
Governor Dobbs called together the Assembly 
to act upon a letter received from General 
Amherst, outlining a more vigorous plan of 
campaign appropriate to the succession of a 
young and vigorous sovereign, George III. 
An aid bill was passed, providing twenty thou- 
sand pounds for men and supplies; and one 
regiment of five companies of one hundred men 
each, under the command of Colonel Hugh 
Waddell, was mustered into service for seven 
months' duty, beginning May 1, 1761. 71 

On July 7, 1761, Colonel James Grant, de- 
tached from the main army in command of a 
force of twenty-six hundred men, took up his 
march from Fort Prince George. Attacked 
on June 10th two miles south of the spot where 
Mon!:gomerie was engaged the preceding year, 
Grant's army, after a vigorous engagement 
lasting several hours, drove off the Indians. 
The army then proceeded at leisure to lay 
waste the fifteen towns of the Middle Settle- 
ments; and, after this work of systematic de- 

93 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

vastation was over, returned to Fort Prince 
George. Peace was concluded in September 
as the result of this campaign; and in conse- 
quence the frontier was pushed seventy miles 
farther to the west. 

Meantime, Colonel Waddell with his force 
of five hundred North Carolinians had acted 
in concert with Colonel William Byrd, com- 
manding the Virginia detachment. The com- 
bined forces went into camp at Captain Sam- 
uel Stalnaker's old place on the Middle Fork 
of Holston. Because of his deliberately dila- 
tory policy, Byrd was superseded in the com- 
mand by Colonel Adam Stephen. Marching 
their forces to the Long Island of Holston, Ste- 
phen and Waddell erected there Fort Robin- 
son, in compliance with the instructions of 
Governor Fauquier, of Virginia. The Chero- 
kees, heartily tired of the war, now sued for 
peace, which was concluded, independent of 
the treaty at Charleston, on November 19, 
1761. 

The successful termination of this campaign 
had an effect of signal importance in the de- 

94 



CRUSHING THE CHEROKEES 

velopment of the expansionist spirit. The rich 
and beautiful lands which fell under the eye 
of the North Carolina and Virginia pioneers 
under Waddell, Byrd, and Stephen, lured 
them irresistibly on to wider casts for fortune 
and bolder explorations into the unknown, 
beckoning West. 



95 



CHAPTER VII 

THE LAND COMPANIES 

It was thought good policy to settle those lands as fast as 
possible, and that the granting them to men of the first con- 
sequence who were likeliest and best able to procure large 
bodies of people to settle on them was the most probable 
means of effecting the end proposed. 

— Acting-Governor Nelson of Virginia to the 
Earl of Hillsborough: 1770. 

ALTHOUGH for several decades the Vir- 
ginia traders had been passing over the 
Great Trading Path to the towns of the Chero- 
kees and the Catawbas, it was not until the 
early years of the eighteenth century that Vir- 
ginians of imaginative vision directed their 
eyes to the westward, intent upon crossing the 
mountains and locating settlements as a firm 
barrier against the imperialistic designs of 
France. Acting upon his oft-expressed con- 
viction that once the English settlers had estab- 
lished themselves at the source of the James 

96 



THE LAND COMPANIES 

River "it would not be in the power of the 
French to dislodge them," Governor Alexan- 
der Spotswood in 1716, animated with the 
spirit of the pioneer, led an expedition of fifty 
men and a train of pack-horses to the moun- 
tains, arduously ascended to the summit of 
the Blue Ridge, and claimed the country by 
right of discovery in behalf of his sovereign. 
In the journal of John Fontaine this vivacious 
account is given of the historic episode: "I 
graved my name on a tree by the river side; 
and the Governor buried a bottle with a paper 
enclosed on which he writ that he took posses- 
sion of this place in the name and for King 
George the First of England. We had a good 
dinner, and after it we got the men together 
and loaded all their arms and we drank the 
King's health in Burgundy and fired a volley, 
and all the rest of the Royal Family in claret 
and a volley. We drank the Governor's 
health and fired another volley." 

By this jovial picnic, which the governor 
afterward commemorated by presenting to 
each of the gentlemen who accompanied him 

97 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

a golden horseshoe, inscribed with the legend, 
Sic juvat transcendere montes, Alexander 
Spotswood anticipated by a third of a century 
the more ambitious expedition on behalf of 
France by Celoron de Bienville (see Chapter 
III), and gave a memorable object-lesson in 
the true spirit of westward expansion. Dur- 
ing the ensuing years it began to dawn upon 
the minds of men of the stamp of William 
Byrd and Joshua Gee that there was impera- 
tive need for the establishment of a chain of 
settlements in the trans-Alleghany, a great hu- 
man wall to withstand the advancing wave of 
French influence and occupation. By the 
fifth decade of the century, as we have seen, 
the Virginia settlers, with their squatter's 
claims and tomahawk rights, had pushed on 
to the mountains; and great pressure was 
brought to bear upon the council to issue 
grants for vast tracts of land in the uncharted 
wilderness of the interior. 

At this period the English ministry adopted 
the aggressive policy already mentioned in 
connection with the French and Indian war, 

98 



THE LAND COMPANIES 

indicative of a determination to contest with 
France the right to occupy the interior of the 
continent. This policy had been inaugurated 
by Virginia with the express purpose of stimu- 
lating the adoption of a similar policy by North 
Carolina and Pennsylvania. Two land com- 
panies, organized almost simultaneously, ac- 
tively promoted the preliminaries necessary to 
settlement, despatching parties under expert 
leadership to discover the passes through the 
mountains and to locate the best land in the 
trans- Alleghany. 

In June, 1749, a great corporation, the 
Loyal Land Company of Virginia, received 
a grant of eight hundred thousand acres above 
the North Carolina line and west of the moun- 
tains. Dr. Thomas Walker, an expert sur- 
veyor, who in company with several other gen- 
tlemen had made a tour of exploration through 
eastern Tennessee and the Holston region in 
1748, was chosen as the agent of this company. 
Starting from his home in Albemarle County, 
Virginia, March 6, 1750, accompanied by five 
stalwart pioneers, Walker made a tour of ex- 

99 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

ploration to the westward, being absent four 
months and one week. On this journey, which 
carried the party as far west as the Rockcastle 
River (May 11th) and as far north as the 
present Paintsville, Kentucky, they named 
many natural objects, such as mountains and 
rivers, after members of the party. Their two 
principal achievements were the erection of the 
first house built by white" men between the 
Cumberland Mountains and the Ohio River — 
a feat, however,' which led to no important de- 
velopments ; and the discovery of the wonder- 
ful gap in the Alleghanies to which Walker 
gave the name Cumberland, in honor of the 
ruthless conqueror at Culloden, the "bloody 
duke." 

, In 1748 the Ohio Company was organized 
by Colonel Thomas Lee, president of the Vir- 
ginia council, and twelve other gentlemen, of 
Virginia and Maryland. In their petition for 
five hundred thousand acres, one of the de- 
clared objects of the company was "to antici- 
pate the French by taking possession of that 
country southward of the Lakes to which the 

100 



THE LAND COMPANIES 

French had no right. . . ." By the royal 
order of May 19, 1749, the company was 
awarded two hundred thousand acres, free of 
quit-rent for ten years; and the promise was 
made of an additional award of the remainder 
petitioned for, on condition of seating a hun- 
dred families upon the original grant and the 
building and maintaining of a fort. Christo- 
pher Gist, summoned from his remote home 
on the Yadkin in North Carolina, was in- 
structed "to search out and discover the Lands 
upon the river Ohio & other adjoining branches 
of the Mississippi down as low as the great 
Falls thereof." In this journey, which began 
at Colonel Thomas Cresap's, in Maryland, in 
October, 1750, and ended at Gist's home on 
May 18, 1751, Gist visited the Lower Shawnee 
Town and the Lower Blue Licks, ascended 
Pilot Knob almost two decades before Find- 
lay and Boone, from the same eminence, "saw 
with pleasure the beautiful level of Kentucky,'* 
intersected Walker's route at two points, and 
crossed Cumberland Mountain at Pound Gap 
on the return journey. This was a far more 

101 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

extended journey than Walker's, enabling 
Gist to explore the fertile valleys of the Musk- 
ingum, Scioto, and Miami rivers and to gain 
a view of the beautiful meadows of Kentucky. 72 
It is eminently significant of the spirit of 
the age, which was inaugurating an era of land- 
hunger unparalleled in American history, that 
the first authentic records of the trans-Alle- 
ghany were made by surveyors who visited the 
country as the agents of great land companies. 
The outbreak of the French and Indian War 
so soon afterward delayed for a decade and 
more any important colonization of the West. 
Indeed, the explorations and findings of 
Walker and Gist were almost unknown, even 
to the companies they represented. But the 
conclusion of peace in 1763, which gave all the 
region between the mountains and the Missis- 
sippi to the British, heralded the true begin- 
ning of the westward expansionist movement 
in the Old Southwest, and inaugurated the 
constructive leadership of North Carolina in 
the occupation and colonization of the imperial 
domain of Kentucky and the Ohio Valley. 

102 



THE LAND COMPANIES 

In the middle years of the century many 
families of Virginia gentry removed to the 
back countiy of North Carolina in the fertile 
region ranging from Williamsborough on the 
east to Hillsborough on the west. 73 There 
soon arose in this section of the colony a so- 
ciety marked by intellectual distinction, social 
graces, and the leisured dignity of the land- 
lord and the large planter. So conspicuous 
for means, intellect, culture, and refinement 
were the people of this group, having "abun- 
dance of wealth and leisure for enjoyment," 
that Governor Josiah Martin, in passing 
through this region some years later, signifi- 
cantly observes: "They have great pre-emi- 
nence, as well with respect to soil and cultiva- 
tion, as to the manners and condition of the 
inhabitants, in which last respect the difference 
is so great that one would be led to think 
them people of another region." 74 This new 
wealthy class which was now turning its gaze 
toward the unoccupied lands along the frontier 
was "dominated by the democratic ideals of 
pioneers rather than by the aristocratic tend- 

103 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

encies of slave-holding planters." 75 From the 
cross-fertilization of the ideas of two social 
groups — this back-country gentry, of innate 
qualities of leadership, democratic instincts, 
economic independence, and expansive tenden- 
cies, and the primitive pioneer society of the 
frontier, frugal in taste, responsive to leader- 
ship, bold, ready, and thorough in execution 
— there evolved the- militant American expan- 
sion in the Old Southwest. 

A conspicuous figure in this society of Vir- 
ginia emigrants was a young man named Rich- 
ard Henderson, whose father had removed 
with his family from Hanover County, Vir- 
ginia, to Bute, afterward Granville County, 
North Carolina, in 1742. 70 Educated at home 
by a private tutor, he began his career as as- 
sistant of his father, Samuel Henderson, the 
High Sheriff of Granville County; and after 
receiving a law-license, quickly acquired an 
extensive practice. "Even in the superior 
courts where oratory and eloquence are as 
brilliant and powerful as in Westminster- 
hall," records an English acquaintance, "he 

104 



THE LAND COMPANIES 

soon became distinguished and eminent, and 
his superior genius shone forth with great 
splendour, and universal applause." This 
young attorney, wedded to the daughter of 
an Irish lord, often visited Salisbury on his 
legal circuit; and here he became well ac- 
quainted with Squire Boone, one of the 
"Worshipfull Justices," and often appeared 
in suits before him. By his son, the nomadic 
Daniel Boone, conspicuous already for his 
solitary wanderings across the dark green 
mountains to the sun-lit valleys and bound- 
less hunting-grounds beyond, Henderson was 
from time to time regaled with bizarre and 
fascinating tales of western exploration; 
and Boone, in his dark hour of poverty and 
distress, when he was heavily involved finan- 
cially, turned for aid to this friend and his 
partner, who composed the law-firm of Wil- 
liams and Henderson. 77 

Boone's vivid descriptions of the paradise 
of the West stimulated Henderson's imagina- 
tive mind and attracted his attention to the 
rich possibilities of unoccupied lands there. 

105 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

While the Board of Trade in drafting the 
royal proclamation of October 7, 1763, forbade 
the granting of lands in the vast interior, which 
was specifically reserved to the Indians, it was 
clearly not their intention to set permanent 
western limits to the colonies. 78 The prevail- 
ing opinion among the shrewdest men of the 
period was well expressed by George Wash- 
ington, who wrote his agent for preempting 
western lands: "I can never look upon that 
proclamation in any other light (but I say this 
between ourselves) than as a temporary ex- 
pedient to quiet the minds of the Indians." 
And again in 1767: "It [the proclamation 
of 1763] must fall, of course, in a few years, 
especially when those Indians consent to our 
occupying the lands. Any person, therefore, 
who neglects the present opportunity of hunt- 
ing out good lands, and in some measure mark- 
ing out and distinguishing them for his own, in 
order to keep others from settling them, will 
never regain it." Washington had added 
greatly to his holdings of bounty lands in the 
West by purchasing at trivial prices the claims 

106 



THE LAND COMPANIES 

of many of the officers and soldiers. Three 
years later we find him surveying extensive 
tracts along the Ohio and the Great Kanawha, 
and, with the vision of the expansionist, mak- 
ing large plans for the establishment of a 
colony to be seated upon his own lands. Hen- 
derson, too, recognized the importance of the 
great country west of the Appalachians. He 
agreed with the opinion of Benjamin Frank- 
lin, who in 1756 called it "one of the finest in 
North America for the extreme richness and 
fertility of the land, the healthy temperature 
of the air and the mildness of the climate, the 
plenty of hunting, fishing and fowling, the 
facility of trade with the Indians and the vast 
convenience of inland navigation or water car- 
riage." 70 Henderson therefore proceeded to 
organize a land company for the purpose of 
acquiring and colonizing a large domain in the 
West. This partnership, which was entitled 
Richard Henderson and Company, was com- 
posed of a few associates, including Richard 
Henderson, his uncle and law-partner, John 
Williams, and, in all probability, their close 

107 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

friends Thomas and Nathaniel Hart of 
Orange County, North Carolina, immigrants 
from Hanover County, Virginia. 

Seizing the opportunity presented just after 
the conclusion of peace, the company engaged 
Daniel Boone as scout and surveyor. He was 
instructed, while hunting and trapping on his 
own account, to examine, with respect to their 
location and fertility, the lands which he vis- 
ited, and to report his findings upon his re- 
turn. The secret expedition must have been 
transacted with commendable circumspection; 
for although in after years it became common 
knowledge among his friends that he had acted 
as the company's agent, Boone himself con- 
sistently refrained from betraying the confi- 
dence of his employers. 80 Upon a similar mis- 
sion, Gist had carefully concealed from the 
suspicious Indians the fact that he carried a 
compass, which they wittily termed "land 
stealer"; and Washington likewise imposed 
secrecy upon his land agent Crawford, insist- 
ing that the operation be carried on under the 
guise of hunting game. 81 The discreet Boone, 

108 



THE LAND COMPANIES 

taciturn and given to keeping his own counsel, 
in one instance at least deemed it advantageous 
to communicate the purpose of his mission to 
some hunters, well known to him, in order to 
secure the results of their information in re- 
gard to the best lands they had encountered 
in the course of their hunting expedition. 
Boone came among the hunters, known as the 
"Blevens connection," at one of their Tennes- 
see station camps on their return from a long 
hunt in Kentucky, in order, as expressed in 
the quaint phraseology of the period, to be 
"informed of the geography and tocography 
of these woods, saying that he was employed 
to explore them by Henderson & Company." 
The acquaintance which Boone on this occa- 
sion formed with a member of the party, 
Henry Scaggs, the skilled hunter and ex- 
plorer, was soon to bear fruit ; for shortly after- 
ward Scaggs was employed as prospector by 
the same land company. In 1764 Scaggs had 
passed through Cumberland Gap and hunted 
for the season on the Cumberland; and ac- 
cordingly the following year, as the agent of 

109 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

Richard Henderson and Company, he was des- 
patched on an extended exploration to the 
lower Cumberland, fixing his station at the salt 
lick afterward known as Mansker's Lick. 83 

Richard Henderson thus, it appears, "en- 
listed the Harts and others in an enterprise 
which his own genius planned," says Peck, the 
personal acquaintance and biographer of 
Boone, "and then encouraged several hunters 
to explore the country and learn where the best 
lands lay." Just why Henderson and his asso- 
ciates did not act sooner upon the reports 
brought back by the hunters — Boone and 
Scaggs and Callaway, who accompanied Boone 
in 1764 in the interest of the land company 84 — 
is not known; but in all probability the frag- 
mentary nature of these reports, however glow- 
ing and enthusiastic, was sufficient cause for the 
delay of five years before the land company, 
through the agency of Boone and Findlay, suc- 
ceeded in having a thorough exploration made 
of the Kentucky region. Delay was also 
caused by rival claims to the territory. In the 
Virginia Gazette of December 1, 1768, Hen- 

110 



THE LAND COMPANIES 

derson must have read with astonishment not 
unmixed with dismay that "the Six Nations 
and all their tributaries have granted a vast 
extent of country to his majesty, and the 
Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, and settled an 
advantageous boundary line between their 
hunting country and this, and the other colo- 
nies to the Southward as far as the Cherokee 
River, for which they received the most valu- 
able present in goods and dollars that was ever 
given at any conference since the settlement 
of America." The news was now bruited 
about through the colony of North Carolina 
that the Cherokees were hot in their resentment 
because the Northern Indians, the inveterate 
foes of the Cherokees and the perpetual dis- 
putants for the vast Middle Ground of Ken- 
tucky, had received at the Treaty of Fort 
Stanwix, November 5, 1768, an immense com- 
pensation from the crown for the territory 
which they, the Cherokees, claimed from time 
immemorial. 85 Only three weeks before, John 
Stuart, Superintendent for Indian Affairs in 
the Southern Department, had negotiated with 

111 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

the Cherokees the Treaty of Hard Labor, 
South Carolina (October 14th), by which Gov- 
ernor Tryon's line of 1767, from Reedy River 
to Tryon Mountain, was continued direct to 
Colonel Chiswell's mine, the present Wythe- 
ville, Virginia, and thence in a straight line to 
the mouth of the Great Kanawha. 86 Thus at 
the close of the year 1768 the crown through 
both royal governor and superintendent of In- 
dian affairs acknowledged in fair and open 
treaty the right of the Cherokees, whose 
Tennessee villages guarded the gateway, to the 
valley lands east of the mountain barrier as 
well as to the dim mid-region of Kentucky. 
In the very act of negotiating the Treaty of 
Fort Stanwix, Sir William Johnson privately 
acknowledged that possession of the trans- 
Alleghany could be legally obtained only by 
extinguishing the title of the Cherokees. 87 

These conflicting claims soon led to colli- 
sions between the Indians and the company's 
settlers. In the spring of 1769 occurred one 
of those incidents in the westward advance 
which, though slight in itself, was to have a 

112 



THE LAND COMPANIES 

definite bearing upon the course of events in 
later years. In pursuance of his policy, as 
agent of the Loyal Land Company, of pro- 
moting settlement upon the company's lands, 
Dr. Thomas Walker, who had visited Powell's 
Valley the preceding year and come into pos- 
session of a very large tract there, simultane- 
ously made proposals to one party of men in- 
cluding the Hartleys, Captain Rucker, and 
others, and to another party led by Joseph 
Martin, trader of Orange County, Virginia, 
afterward a striking figure in the Old South- 
west. The fevered race by these bands of 
eighteenth-century "sooners" for possession of 
an early " Cherokee Strip" was won by the 
latter band, who at once took possession and 
began to clear; so that when the Kirtleys ar- 
rived, Martin coolly handed them "a letter 
from Dr. Walker that informed them that if 
we got to the valley first, we were to have 
21,000 acres of land, and they were not to 
interfere with us." Martin and his compan- 
ions were delighted with the beautiful valley 
at the base of the Cumberland, quickly "eat 

113 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

and destroyed 23 deer — 15 bears — 2 buffaloes 
and a great quantity of turkeys," and enter- 
tained gentlemen from Virginia and Maryland 
who desired to settle more than a hundred fam- 
ilies there. The company reckoned, however, 
without their hosts, the Cherokees, who, forti- 
fied by the treaty of Hard Labor (1768) which 
left this country within the Indian reservation, 
were determined to drive Martin and his com- 
pany out. While hunting on the Cumberland 
River, northwest of Cumberland Gap, Martin 
and his company were surrounded and dis- 
armed by a party of Cherokees who said they 
had orders from Cameron, the royal agent, to 
rob all white men hunting on their lands. 
When Martin and his party arrived at their sta- 
tion in Powell's Valley, they found it broken 
up and their goods stolen by the Indians, which 
left them no recourse but to return to the 
settlements in Virginia. It was not until six 
years later that Martin, under the stable in- 
fluence of the Transylvania Company, was en- 
abled to return to this spot and erect there 

114 



THE LAND COMPANIES 

the station which was to play an integral part 
in the progress of westward expansion. 88 

Before going on to relate Boone's explora- 
tions of Kentucky under the auspices of the 
land company, it will be convenient to turn 
back for a moment and give some account of 
other hunters and explorers who visited that 
territory between the time of its discovery by 
Walker and Gist and the advent of Boone. 



115 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE LONG HUNTERS IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE 

The long Hunters principally resided in the upper coun- 
tries of Virginia & North Carolina on New River & Holston 
River, and when they intended to make a long Hunt (as 
they calld it) they Collected near the head of Holston near 
whare Abingdon now stands. . . . 

— General William Hall. 

BEFORE the coming of Walker and Gist 
in 1750 and 1751 respectively, the region 
now called Kentucky had, as far as we know, 
been twice visited by the French, once in 1729 
when Chaussegros de Lery and his party vis- 
ited the Big Bone* Lick, and again in the sum- 
mer of 1749 when the Baron de Longueuil 
with four hundred and fifty-two Frenchmen 
and Indians, going to join Bienville in an ex- 
pedition against "the Cherickees and other In- 
dians lying at the back of Carolina and 
Georgia," doubtless encamped on the Ken- 
tucky shore of the Ohio. Kentucky was also 

116 



LONG HUNTERS IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE 

traversed by John Peter Sailing with his three 
adventurous companions in their journey 
through the Middle West in 1742. But all 
these early visits, including the memorable ex- 
peditions of Walker and Gist, were so little 
known to the general public that when John 
Filson wrote the history of Kentucky in 1784 
he attributed its discovery to James McBride 
in 1754. More influential upon the course of 
westward expansion was an adventure which 
occurred in 1752, the very year in which the 
Boones settled down in their Yadkin home. 

In the autumn of 1752, a Pennsylvania 
trader, John Findlay, with three or four com- 
panions, descended the Ohio River in a canoe 
as far as the falls at the present Louisville, 
Kentucky, and accompanied a party of Shawa- 
noes to their town of Es-kip-pa-ki-thi-ki, 
eleven miles east of what is now Winchester. 
This was the site of the "Indian Old Corn 
Field," the Iroquois name for which ("the 
place of many fields," or "prairie") was Ken- 
ta-ke, whence came the name of the state. 
Five miles east of this spot, where still may 

117 






THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

be seen a mound and an ellipse showing the 
outline of the stockade, is the famous Pilot 
Knob, from the summit of which the fields 
surrounding the town lie visible in their smooth 
expanse. During Findlay's stay at the In- 
dian town other traders from Pennsylvania 
and Virginia, who reported that they were "on 
their return from trading with the Cuttawas 
(Catawbas), a nation who live in the Territo- 
ries of Carolina," assembled in the vicinity in 
January, 1753. Here, as the result of dis- 
putes arising from their barter, they were set 
upon and captured by a large party of strag- 
gling Indians (Coghnawagas from Montreal) 
on January 26th; but Findlay and another 
trader named James Lowry were so fortunate 
as to escape and return through the wilder- 
ness to the Pennsylvania settlements. 89 The 
incident is of important historic significance; 
for it was from these traders, who must have 
followed the Great Warriors' Path to the coun- 
try of the Catawbas, that Findlay learned of 
the Ouasioto (Cumberland) Gap traversed by 
the Indian path. His reminiscences — of this 

118 



LONG HUNTERS IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE 

gateway to Kentucky, of the site of the old 
Indian town on Lulbegrud Creek, a tributary 
of the Red River, and of the Pilot Knob — 
were sixteen years later to fire Boone to his 
great tour of exploration in behalf of the 
Transylvania Company. 

During the next two decades, largely be- 
cause of the hostility of the savage tribes, only 
a few traders and hunters from the east ranged 
through the trans-Alleghany. But in 1761, a 
party of hunters led by a rough frontiersman, 
Elisha Walden, penetrated into Powell's Val- 
ley, followed the Indian trail through Cumber- 
land Gap, explored the Cumberland River, 
and finally reached the Laurel Mountain 
where, encountering a party of Indians, they 
deemed it expedient to return. With Walden 
went Henry Scaggs, afterward explorer for 
the Henderson Land Company, William 
Blevens and Charles Cox, the famous Virginia 
hunters, one Newman, and some fifteen other 
stout pioneers. Their itinerary may be traced 
from the names given to natural objects in 
honor of members of the party — Walden's 

119 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

Mountain and Walden's Creek, Scaggs' Ridge 
and Newman's Ridge. Following the peace 
of 1763, which made travel in this region mod- 
erately safe once more, the English proceeded 
to occupy the territory which they had won. 
In 1765 George Croghan with a small party, on 
the way to prepare the inhabitants of the Illi- 
nois country for transfer to English sover- 
eignty, visited the Great Bone Licks of Ken- 
tucky (May 30th, 31st) ; and a year later Cap- 
tain Harry Gordon, chief engineer in the 
Western Department in North America, vis- 
ited and minutely described the same licks and 
the falls. But these, and numerous other 
water- journeys and expeditions of which no 
records were kept, though interesting enough 
in themselves, had little bearing upon the larger 
phases of westward expansion and coloniza- 
tion. 

The decade opening with the year 1765 is 
the epoch of bold and ever bolder exploration 
— the more adventurous frontiersmen of the 
border pushing deep into the wilderness in 
search of game, lured on by the excitements of 

120 



LONG HUNTERS IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE 

the chase and the profit to be derived from the 
sale of peltries. In midsummer, 1766, Cap- 
tain James Smith, Joshua Horton, Uriah 
Stone, William Baker, and a young mu- 
latto slave passed through Cumberland Gap, 
hunted through the country south of the 
Cherokee and along the Cumberland and 
Tennessee rivers, and as Smith reports "found 
no vestige of any white man." During the 
same year a party of five hunters from 
South Carolina, led by Isaac Lindsey, pene- 
trated the Kentucky wilderness to the tribu- 
tary of the Cumberland, named Stone's 
River by the former party, for one of their 
number. Here they encountered two men, 
who were among the greatest of the western 
pioneers, and were destined to leave their 
names in historic association with the early 
settlement of Kentucky — James Harrod and 
Michael Stoner, a German, both of whom had 
descended the Ohio from Fort Pitt. With the 
year 1769 began those longer and more ex- 
tended excursions into the interior which were 
to result in conveying at last to the outside 

121 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

world graphic and detailed information con- 
cerning "the wonderful new country of Can- 
tucky." In the late spring of this year Han- 
cock and Richard Taylor (the latter the father 
of President Zachary Taylor), Abraham 
Hempinstall, and one Barbour, all true-blue 
frontiersmen, left their homes in Orange 
County, Virginia, and hunted extensively in 
Kentucky and Arkansas. Two of the party 
traveled through Georgia and East and West 
Florida; while the other two hunted on the 
Washita during the winter of 1770-1. Ex- 
plorations of this type became increasingly 
hazardous as the animosity of the Indians in- 
creased; and from this time onward for a num- 
ber of years almost all the parties of roving 
hunters suffered capture or attack by the 
crafty red men. In this same year Major 
John McCulloch, living on the south branch 
of the Potomac, set out accompanied by a 
white man-servant and a negro, to explore the 
western country. While passing down the 
Ohio from Pittsburgh McCulloch was cap- 
tured by the Indians near the mouth of the 

122 



LONG HUNTERS IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE 

Wabash and carried to the present site of 
Terre Haute, Indiana. Set free after four 
or five months, he journeyed in company with 
some French voyageurs first to Natchez and 
then to New Orleans, whence he made the sea 
voyage to Philadelphia. Somewhat later, 
Benjamin Cleveland (afterward famous in the 
Revolution), attended by four companions, set 
out from his home on the upper Yadkin to 
explore the Kentucky wilderness. After pass- 
ing through Cumberland Gap, they encoun- 
tered a band of Cherokees who plundered them 
of everything they had, even to their hats and 
shoes, and ordered them to leave the Indian 
hunting-grounds. On their return journey 
they almost starved, and Cleveland, who was 
reluctantly forced to kill his faithful little 
hunting-dog, was wont to declare in after years 
that it was the sweetest meat he ever ate. 

Fired to adventure by the glowing accounts 
brought back by Uriah Stone, a much more 
formidable band than any that had hitherto 
ventured westward — including Uriah Stone as 
pilot, Gasper Mansker, John Rains, the Bled- 

123 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

soes, and a dozen others — assembled in June, 
1769, in the New River region. "Each Man 
carried two horses," says an early pioneer in 
describing one of these parties, "traps, a large 
supply of powder and led, and a small hand 
vise and bellows, files and screw plate for the 
purpose of fixing the guns if any of them 
should get out of fix." Passing through Cum- 
berland Gap, they continued their long jour- 
ney until they reached Price's Meadow, in the 
present Wayne County, Kentucky, where they 
established their encampment. In the course 
of their explorations, during which they gave 
various names to prominent natural features, 
they established their "station camp" on a creek 
in Sumner County, Tennessee, whence origi- 
nated the name of Station Camp Creek. 
Isaac Bledsoe and Gasper Mansker, agreeing 
to travel from here in opposite directions along 
a buffalo trace passing near the camp, each 
succeeded in discovering the famous salt-lick 
which bears his name — namely Bledsoe's Lick 
and Mansker's Lick. The flat surrounding 
the lick, about one hundred acres in extent, 



LONG HUNTERS IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE 

discovered by Bledsoe, according to his own 
statement "was principally Covered with buf- 
felows in every direction — not hundreds but 
thousands." As he sat on his horse, he shot 
down two deer in the lick; but the buffaloes 
blindly trod them in the mud. They did not 
mind him and his horse except when the wind 
blew the scent in their nostrils, when they 
would break and run in droves. Indians often 
lurked in the neighbourhood of these hunters 
— plundering their camp, robbing them, and 
even shooting down one of their number, Rob- 
ert Crockett, from ambush. After many 
trials and vicissitudes, which included a jour- 
ney to the Spanish Natchez and the loss of a 
great mass of peltries when they were plun- 
dered by Piomingo and a war party of Chicka- 
saws, they finally reached home in the late 
spring of 1770. 90 

The most notable expedition of this period, 
projected under the auspices of two bold lead- 
ers extraordinarily skilled in woodcraft, Joseph 
Drake and Henry Scaggs, was organized in 
the early autumn of 1770. This imposing 

125 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

band of stalwart hunters from the New River 
and Holston country, some forty in number, 
garbed in hunting shirts, leggings, and mocca- 
sins, with three pack-horses to each man, rifles, 
ammunition, traps, dogs, blankets, and salt, 
pushed boldly through Cumberland Gap into 
the heart of what was later justly named the 
"Dark and Bloody Ground" (see Chapter 
XIV) — "not doubting," says an old border 
chronicler, "that they were to be encountered 
by Indians, and to subsist on game." From 
the duration of their absence from home, they 
received the name of the Long Hunters — the 
romantic appellation by which they are known 
in the pioneer history of the Old Southwest. 
Many natural objects were named by this 
party — in particular Dick's River, after the 
noted Cherokee hunter, Captain Dick, who, 
pleased to be recognized by Charles Scaggs, 
told the Long Hunters that on his river, point- 
ing it out, they would find meat plenty — add- 
ing with laconic significance: "Kill it and go 
home." From the Knob Lick, in Lincoln 
County, as reported by a member of the party, 

126 



LONG HUNTERS IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE 

"they beheld largely over a thousand animals, 
including buffaloe, elk, bear, and deer, with 
many wild turkies scattered among them; all 
quite restless, some playing, and others busily 
employed in licking the earth. . . . The buffa- 
loe and other animals had so eaten away the 
soil, that they could, in places, go entirely un- 
derground." Upon the return of a detach- 
ment to Virginia, fourteen fearless hunters 
chose to remain; and one day, during the ab- 
sence of some of the band upon a long explor- 
ing trip, the camp was attacked by a straggling 
party of Indians under Will Emery, a half- 
breed Cherokee. Two of the hunters were car- 
ried into captivity and never heard of again; 
a third managed to escape. In embittered 
commemoration of the plunder of the camp and 
the destruction of the peltries, they inscribed 
upon a poplar, which had lost its bark, thi : 
emphatic record, followed by their names : 



2300 Deer Skins lost Ruination by God 



91 



Undismayed by this depressing stroke of 
fortune, they continued their hunt in the di- 

127 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

rection of the lick which Bledsoe had discov- 
ered the preceding year. Shortly after this 
discovery, a French voyageur from the Illinois 
who had hunted and traded in this region for 
a decade, Timothe de Monbreun, subsequently 
famous in the history of Tennessee, had visited 
the lick and killed an enormous number of 
buffaloes for their tallow and tongues with 
which he and his companion loaded a keel boat 
and descended the Cumberland. An early 
pioneer, William Hall, learned from Isaac 
Bledsoe that when "the long hunters Crossed 
the ridge and came down on Bledsoe's Creek 
in four or five miles of the Lick the Cane had 
grown up so thick in the woods that they 
thought they had mistaken the place until they 
Came to the Lick and saw what had been done. 
. . . One could walk for several hundred yards 
a round the Lick and in the lick on buffellows 
Skuls, & bones and the whole flat round the 
Lick was bleached with buffellows bones, and 
they found out the Cause of the Canes grow- 
ing up so suddenly a few miles around the 

128 



LONG HUNTERS IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE 

Lick which was in Consequence of so many 
buffellows being killed." 

This expedition was of genuine importance, 
opening the eyes of the frontiersmen to the 
charms of the country and influencing many 
to settle subsequently in the West — some in 
Tennessee, some in Kentucky. The elaborate 
and detailed information brought back by 
Henry Scaggs exerted an appreciable influ- 
ence, no doubt, in accelerating the plans of 
Richard Henderson and Company for the 
acquisition and colonization of the trans-Alle- 
ghany. But while the "Long Hunters" were 
in Tennessee and Kentucky the same region 
was being more extensively and systematically 
explored by Daniel Boone. To his life, char- 
acter, and attainments, as the typical "long 
hunter" and the most influential pioneer we 
may now turn our particular attention. 



129 



CHAPTER IX 

DANIEL BOONE AND WILDERNESS EXPLORATION 

Here, where the hand of violence shed the blood of the 
innocent; where the horrid yells of the savages, and the groans 
of the distressed, sounded in our ears, we now hear the praises 
and adorations of our Creator; where wretched wigwams 
stood, the miserable abodes of savages, we behold the foun- 
dations of cities laid, that, in all probability, will equal the 
glory of the greatest upon earth. 

— Daniel Boone, 1784. 

THE wandering life of a border Nimrod 
in a surpassingly beautiful country teem- 
ing with game was the ideal of the frontiers- 
man of the eighteenth century. As early as 
1728, while running the dividing line between 
North Carolina and Virginia, William Byrd 
encountered along the North Carolina frontier 
the typical figure of the professional hunter: 
"a famous Woodsman, call'd Epaphroditus 
Bainton. This Forester Spends all his time 
in ranging the Woods, and is said to make 
great Havock among the Deer, and other In- 

130 



DANIEL BOONE AND EXPLORATION 

habitants of the Forest, not much wilder than 
himself." By the middle of the century, as he 
was threading his way through the Carolina 
piedmont zone, the hunter's paradise of the 
Yadkin and Catawba country, Bishop Spang- 
enberg found ranging there many hunters, liv- 
ing like Indians, who killed thousands of deer 
each year and sold the skins in the local mar- 
kets or to the fur-traders from Virginia 
whose heavy pack-trains with their tinkling 
bells constantly traversed the course of the 
Great Trading Path. 

The superlative skill of one of these hunters, 
both as woodsman and marksman, was pro- 
verbial along the border. The name of Daniel 
Boone became synonymous with expert hunts- 
manship and almost uncanny wisdom in forest 
lore. The bottoms of the creek near the 
Boone home, three miles west of present 
Mocksville, contained a heavy growth of beech, 
which dropped large quantities of its rich nuts 
or mast, greatly relished by bears; and this 
creek received its name, Bear Creek, because 
Daniel and his father killed in its rich bottoms 

131 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

ninety-nine bears in a single hunting-season. 
After living for a time with his young wife, 
Rebecca Bryan, in a cabin in his father's yard, 
Daniel built a home of his own upon a tract 
of land, purchased from his father on Octo- 
ber 12, 1759, and lying on Sugar Tree, a trib- 
utary of Dutchman's Creek. Here he dwelt 
for the next five years, with the exception of 
the period of his temporary removal to Vir- 
ginia during the terrible era of the Indian war. 
Most of his time during the autumn and win- 
ter, when he was not engaged in wagoning or 
farming, he spent in long hunting- journeys 
into the mountains to the west and northwest. 
During the hunting-season of 1760 he struck 
deeper than ever before into the western moun- 
tain region and encamped in a natural rocky 
shelter amidst fine hunting-grounds, in what 
is now Washington County in east Tennessee. 
Of the scores of inscriptions commemorative 
of his hunting-feats, which Boone with pardon- 
able pride was accustomed throughout his life- 
time to engrave with his hunting-knife upon 
trees and rocks, the earliest known is found 

132 



D. Boon 




A. BAR 


On 




Tree 


The 




yEAR 




1760 





DANIEL BOONE AND EXPLORATION 

upon a leaning beech tree, only recently fallen, 
near his camp and the creek which since that 
day has borne his name. This is a character- 
istic and enduring record in the history of 
American exploration : 



CillED 



in 



Late in the summer of the following year 
Boone marched under the command of the 
noted Indian-fighter of the border, Colonel 
Hugh Waddell, in his campaign against the 
Cherokees. From the lips of Waddell, who 
was outspoken in his condemnation of Byrd's 
futile .delays in road-cutting and fort-building, 
Boone learned the true secret of success in 
Indian warfare, which was lost upon Brad- 
dock, Forbes, and later St. Clair: that the art 
of defeating red men was to deal them a sud- 
den and unexpected blow, before they had time 
either to learn the strength of 'the .force em- 

133 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

ployed against them or to lay with subtle craft 
their artful ambuscade. 

In the late autumn of 1761, Daniel Boone 
and Nathaniel Gist, the son of Washington's 
famous guide, who were both serving under 
Waddell, temporarily detached themselves 
from his command and led a small party on a 
"long hunt" in the Valley of the Holston. 
While encamping near the site of Black's Fort, 
subsequently built, they were violently assailed 
by a pack of fierce wolves which they had con- 
siderable difficulty in beating off; and from this 
incident the locality became known as Wolf 
Hills (now Abingdon, Virginia) , 92 

From this time forward Boone's roving in- 
stincts had full sway. For many months each 
year he threaded his way through that mar- 
velously beautiful country of western North 
Carolina felicitously described as the Switzer- 
land of America. Boone's love of solitude 
and the murmuring forest was surely inspired 
by the phenomenal beauties of the country 
through which he roamed at will. Blowing 
Rock on one arm of a great horseshoe of moun- 

134 



DANIEL BOONE AND EXPLORATION 

tains and Tryon Mountain upon the other 
arm, overlooked an enormous, primeval bowl, 
studded by a thousand emerald-clad eminences. 
There was the Pilot Mountain, the towering 
and isolated pile which from time immemorial 
had served the aborigines as a guide in their 
forest wanderings; there was the dizzy height 
of the Roan on the border ; there was Mt. 
Mitchell, portentous in its grandeur, the tallest 
peak on the continent east of the Rockies ; and 
there was the Grandfather, the oldest moun- 
tain on earth according to geologists, of which 
it has been written: 

Oldest of all terrestrial things — still holding 

Thy wrinkled forehead high ; 
Whose every seam, earth's history enfolding, 

Grim science doth defy ! 

Thou caught'st the far faint ray from Sirius rising, 
When through space first was hurled 

The primal gloom of ancient voids surprising, 
This atom, called the World ! 

What more gratifying to the eye of the wan- 
derer than the luxuriant vegetation and lavish 

135 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

profusion of the gorgeous flowers upon the 
mountain slopes, radiant rhododendron, rose- 
bay, and laurel, and the azalea rising like 
flame; or the rare beauties of the water — the 
cataract of Linville, taking its shimmering leap 
into the gorge, and that romantic river poeti- 
cally celebrated in the lines: 

Swannanoa, nymph of beauty, 
I would woo thee in my rhyme, 
Wildest, brightest, loveliest river 
Of our sunny Southern clime. 
*. * * 

Gone forever from the borders 
But immortal in thy name, 
Are the Red Men of the forest 
Be thou keeper of their fame ! 
Paler races dwell beside thee, 
Celt and Saxon till thy lands 
Wedding use unto thy beauty — 
Linking over thee their hands. 

The long rambling excursions which Boone 
made through western North Carolina and 
eastern Tennessee enabled him to explore 
every nook and corner of the rugged and beau- 
tiful mountain region. Among the compan- 

136 



DANIEL BOONE AND EXPLORATION 

ions and contemporaries with whom he hunted 
and explored the country were his little son 
James and his brother Jesse; the Linville who 
gave the name to the beautiful falls; Julius 
Caesar Dugger, whose rock house stood near 
the head of Elk Creek; and Nathaniel Gist, 
who described for him the lofty gateway to 
Kentucky, through which Christopher Gist 
had passed in 1751. Boone had already heard 
of this gateway, from Findlay, and it was one 
of the secret and cherished ambitions of his 
life to scale the mountain wall of the Appala- 
chians and to reach that high portal of the 
Cumberland which beckoned to the mysterious 
new Eden beyond. Although hunting was an 
endless delight to Boone he was haunted in the 
midst of this pleasure, as was Kipling's Ex- 
plorer, by the lure of the undiscovered : 

Till a voice as bad as conscience, rang interminable 

changes 
On one everlasting whisper day and night repeated 

— so: 
'Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look 

behind the ranges — 

137 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

'Something lost behind the ranges. Lost and wait- 
ing for you. Go.' 

Of Boone's preliminary explorations for the 
land company known as Richard Henderson 
and Company, an account has already been 
given; and the delay in following them up 
has been touched on and in part explained. 
Meanwhile Boone transferred his efforts for 
a time to another field. Toward the close 
of the summer of 1765 a party consisting 
of Major John Field, William Hill, one 
Slaughter, and two others, all from Culpeper 
County, Virginia, visited Boone and induced 
him to accompany them on the "long Journey" 
to Florida, whither they were attracted by the 
liberal offer of Colonel James Grant, governor 
of the eastern section, the Florida of to-day. 
On this long and arduous expedition they suf- 
fered many hardships and endured many pri- 
vations, found little game, and on one occa- 
sion narrowly escaped starvation. They ex- 
plored Florida from St. Augustine to Pensa- 
cola ; and Boone, who relished fresh scenes and 
a new environment, purchased a house and lot 

138 



DANIEL BOONE AND EXPLORATION 

in Pensacola in anticipation of removal thither. 
But upon his return home, finding his wife un- 
willing to go, Boone once more turned his 
eager eye toward the West, that mysterious 
and alluring region beyond the great range, 
the fabled paradise of Kentucky. 

The following year four young men from 
the Yadkin, Benjamin Cutbird, John Stewart 
(Boone's brother-in-law who afterwards ac- 
companied him to Kentucky), John Baker, 
and James Ward made a remarkable journey 
to the westward, crossing the Appalachian 
mountain chain over some unknown route, and 
finally reaching the Mississippi. The signifi- 
cance of the journey, in its bearing upon west- 
ward expansion, inheres in the fact that while 
for more than half a century the English trad- 
ers from South Carolina had been winning 
their way to the Mississippi along the lower 
routes and Indian trails, this was the first party 
from either of the Carolinas, as far as is known, 
that ever reached the Mississippi by crossing 
the great mountain barrier. When Cutbird, 
a superb woodsman and veritable Leather- 

139 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

stocking, narrated to Boone the story of his 
adventures, it only confirmed Boone in his 
determination to find the passage through the 
mountain chain leading to the Mesopotamia of 
Kentucky. 

Such an enterprise was attended by terrible 
dangers. During 1766 and 1767 the steady 
encroachments of the white settlers upon the 
ancestral domain which the Indians reserved 
for their imperial hunting-preserve aroused bit- 
ter feelings of resentment among the red men. 
Bloody reprisal was often the sequel to such 
encroachment. The vast region of Tennessee 
and the trans-Alleghany was a twilight zone, 
through which the savages roamed at will. 
From time to time war parties of northern In- 
dians, the inveterate foes of the Cherokees, 
scouted through this no-man's land and even 
penetrated into the western region of North 
Carolina, committing murders and depreda- 
tions upon the Cherokees and the whites indis- 
criminately. During the summer of 1766, 
while Boone's friend and close connection, 
Captain William Linville, his son John, and 

140 



DANIEL BOONE AND EXPLORATION 

another young man, named John Williams, 
were in camp some ten miles below Linville 
Falls, they were unexpectedly fired upon by 
a hostile band of Northern Indians, and 
before they had time to fire a shot, a second 
volley killed both the Linvilles and severely 
wounded Williams, who after extraordinary 
sufferings finally reached the settlements. 93 
In May, 1767, four traders and a half-breed 
child of one of them were killed in the Cherokee 
country. In the summer of this year Gover- 
nor William Tryon of North Carolina laid 
out the boundary line of the Cherokees, and 
upon his return issued a proclamation forbid- 
ding any purchase of land from the Indians 
and any issuance of grants for land within 
one mile of the boundary line. Despite this 
wise precaution, seven North Carolina hunters 
who during the following September had law- 
lessly ventured into the mountain region some 
sixty miles beyond the boundary were fired 
upon, and several of them killed, by the resent- 
ful Cherokees. 94 

Undismayed by these signs of impending 
141 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

danger, undeterred even by the tragic fate of 
the Linvilles, Daniel Boone, with the deter- 
mination of the indomitable pioneer, never 
dreamed of relinquishing his long-cherished de- 
sign. Discouraged by the steady disappear- 
ance of game under the ruthless attack of in- 
numerable hunters, Boone continued to direct 
his thoughts toward the project of exploring 
the fair region of Kentucky. The adventur- 
ous William Hill, to whom Boone communi- 
cated his purpose, readily consented to go with 
him; and in the autumn of 1767 Boone and 
Hill, accompanied, it is believed, by Squire 
Boone, Daniel's brother, set forth upon their 
almost inconceivably hazardous expedition. 
They crossed the Blue Ridge and the Alle- 
ghanies, the Holston and Clinch rivers near 
their sources, and finally reached the head 
waters of the West Fork of the Big Sandy. 
Surmising from its course that this stream 
must flow into the Ohio, they pushed on a 
hundred miles to the westward and finally, by 
following a buffalo path, reached a salt-spring 
in what is now Floyd County, in the extreme 

142 



DANIEL BOONE AND EXPLORATION 

eastern section of Kentucky. Here Boone be- 
held great droves of buffalo that visited the 
salt-spring to drink the water or lick the brack- 
ish soil. After spending the winter in hunting 
and trapping, the Boones and Hill, discouraged 
by the forbidding aspect of the hilly country 
which with its dense growth of laurel was ex- 
ceedingly difficult to penetrate, abandoned all 
hope of finding Kentucky by this route and 
wended their arduous way back to the Yadkin. 
The account of Boone's subsequent accom- 
plishment of his purpose must be postponed 
to the next chapter. 



143 



CHAPTER X 

DANIEL BOONE IN KENTUCKY 

He felt very much as Columbus did, gazing from his caravel 
on San Salvador; as Cortes, looking down from the crest of 
Ahualco, on the Valley of Mexico; or Vasco Nufiez, standing 
alone on the peak of Darien, and stretching his eyes over the 
hitherto undiscovered waters of the Pacific. 

— William Gilmore Simms: Views and Reviews. 

A CHANCE acquaintance formed by- 
Daniel Boone, during the French and 
Indian War, with the Irish lover of adventure, 
John Findlay, 95 was the origin of Boone's cher- 
ished longing to reach the El Dorado of the 
West. In this slight incident we may discern 
the initial inspiration for the epochal move- 
ment of westward expansion. Findlay was a 
trader and horse peddler, who had early mi- 
grated to Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He had 
been licensed a trader with the Indians in 1747. 
During the same year he was married to Eliza- 
beth Harris, daughter of John Harris, the In- 

144 



DANIEL BOONE IN KENTUCKY 

dian-trader at Harris's Ferry on the Susque- 
hanna River, after whom Harrisburg was 
named. During the next eight years Find- 
lay carried on his business of trading in the 
interior. Upon the opening of the French 
and Indian War he was probably among 
"the young men about Paxtang who enlisted 
immediately," and served as a waggoner in 
Braddock's expedition. Over the camp-fires, 
during the ensuing campaign in 1765, young 
Boone was an eager listener to Findlay's stir- 
ring narrative of his adventures in the Ohio 
Valley and on the wonderfully beautiful 
levels of Kentucky in 1752. The fancies 
aroused in his brooding mind by Findlay's 
moving recital and his description of an an- 
cient passage through the Ouasioto or Cum- 
berland Gap and along the course of the War- 
rior's Path, inspired him with an irrepressible 
longing to reach that alluring promised land 
which was the perfect realization of the hunt- 
er's paradise. 

Thirteen years later, while engaged in sell- 
ing pins, needles, thread, and Irish linens in 

145 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

the Yadkin country, Findlay learned from the 
Pennsylvania settlers at Salisbury or at the 
Forks of the Yadkin of Boone's removal to the 
waters of the upper Yadkin. At Boone's 
rustic home, in the winter of 1768-9, Findlay 
visited his old comrade-in-arms of Braddock's 
campaign. On learning of Boone's failure 
during the preceding year to reach the Ken- 
tucky levels by way of the inhospitable Sandy 
region, Findlay again described to him the 
route through the Ouasioto Gap traversed 
sixteen years before by Pennsylvania trad- 
ers in their traffic with the Catawbas. Boone, 
as we have seen, knew that Christopher Gist, 
who had formerly lived near him on the 
upper Yadkin, had found some passage 
through the lofty mountain denies; but he 
had never been able to discover the passage. 
Findlay's renewed descriptions of the immense 
herds of buffaloes he had seen in Kentucky, 
the great salt-licks where they congregated, the 
abundance of bears, deer, and elk with which 
the country teemed, the innumerable flocks of 
wild turkeys, geese, and ducks, aroused in 

146 



DANIEL BOONE IN KENTUCKY 

Boone the hunter's passion for the chase ; while 
the beauty of the lands, as mirrored in the 
vivid fancy of the Irishman, inspired him with 
a new longing to explore the famous country 
which had, as John Filson records, "greatly 
engaged Mr. Findlay's attention." Y^ 

In the comprehensive designs of Henderson, 
now a judge, for securing a -graphic report of 
the trans-Alleghany region in behalf of his 
land company, Boone divined the means of 
securing the financial backing for an expedition 
of considerable size and ample equipment. 96 
In numerous suits for debt, aggregating hun- 
dreds of dollars, which had been instituted 
against Boone by some of the leading citizens 
of Rowan, Williams and Henderson had acted 
as Boone's attorneys. In order to collect their 
legal fees, they likewise brought suit against 
Boone; but not wishing to press the action 
against the kindly scout who had hitherto acted 
as their agent in western exploration, they con- 
tinued the litigation from court to court, in 
lieu of certain "conditions performed" on be- 
half of Boone, during his unbroken absence, 

147 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

by his attorney in this suit, Alexander Martin. 97 
Summoned to appear in 1769 at the March 
term of court at Salisbury, Boone seized upon 
the occasion to lay before Judge Henderson 
the designs for a renewed and extended ex- 
ploration of Kentucky suggested by the golden 
opportunity of securing the services of Find- 
lay as guide. Shortly after March 6th, when 
Judge Henderson reached Salisbury, the con- 
ference, doubtless attended by John Stewart, 
Boone's brother-in-law, John Findlay, and 
Boone, who were all present at this term of 
court, must have been held, for the purpose of 
devising ways and means for the expedition. 
Peck, the only reliable contemporary bio- 
grapher of the pioneer, who derived many facts 
from Boone himself and his intimate acquaint- 
ances, draws the conclusion (1847) : "Daniel 
Boone was engaged as the master spirit of this 
exploration, because in his judgment and fidel- 
ity entire confidence could be reposed. . . . 
He was known to Henderson and encouraged 
by him to make the exploration, and to examine 
particularly the whole country south of the 

148 



DANIEL BOONE IN KENTUCKY 

Kentucky — or as then called the Louisa 
River." 08 As confidential agent of the land 
company, Boone carried with him letters and 
instructions for his guidance upon this ex- 
tended tour of exploration." 

On May 1, 1769, with Findlay as guide, and 
accompanied by four of his neighbors, John 
Stewart, a skilled woodsman, Joseph Holden, 
James Mooney, and William Cooley, Boone 
left his "peaceable habitation" on the upper 
Yadkin and began his historic journey "in 
quest of the country of Kentucky." Already 
heavily burdened with debts, Boone must have 
incurred considerable further financial obliga- 
tions to Judge Henderson and Colonel Wil- 
liams, acting for the land company, in order 
to obtain the large amount of supplies requisite 
for so prolonged an expedition. Each of the 
adventurers rode a good horse of strength and 
endurance; and behind him were securely 
strapped the blanket, ammunition, salt, and 
cooking-utensils so indispensable for a long so- 
journ in the wilderness. In Powell's Valley 
they doubtless encountered the party led 

149 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

thither by Joseph Martin (see Chapter 
VII), and there fell into the "Hunter's 
Trail" commented on in a letter written by 
Martin only a fortnight before the passing of 
Boone's cavalcade. Crossing the mountain at 
the Ouasioto Gap, they made their first "sta- 
tion camp" in Kentucky on the creek, still 
named after that circumstance, on the Red 
Lick Fork. After a preliminary journey for 
the purpose of locating the spot, Findlay 
led the party to his old trading-camp at Es- 
kip-pa-ki-thi-ki, where then (June 7, 1769) 
remained but charred embers of the Indian 
huts, with some of the stockading and the 
gate-posts still standing. In Boone's own 
words, he and Findlay at once "proceeded to 
take a more thorough survey of the country"; 
and during the autumn and early winter, en- 
countering on every hand apparently inex- 
haustible stocks of wild game and noting the 
ever-changing beauties of the country, the va- 
rious members of the party made many hunt- 
ing and exploring journeys from their "station 
camp" as base. On December 22, 1769, while 

150 



DANIEL BOONE IN KENTUCKY 

engaged in a hunt, Boone and Stewart were 
surprised and captured by a large party of 
Shawanoes, led by Captain Will, who were 
returning from the autumn hunt on Green 
River to their villages north of the Ohio. 
Boone and Stewart were forced to pilot the 
Indians to their main camp, where the savages, 
after robbing them of all their peltries and 
supplies and leaving them inferior guns and 
little ammunition, set off to the northward. 
They left, on parting, this menacing admoni- 
tion to the white intruders: "Now, brothers, 
go home and stay there. Don't come here any 
more, for this is the Indians' hunting-ground, 
and all the animals, skins, and furs are ours. 
If you are so foolish as to venture here again, 
you may be sure the wasps and yellow jackets 
will sting you severely." 

Chagrined particularly by the -loss of the 
horses, Boone and Stewart for two days pur- 
sued the Indians in hot haste. Finally ap- 
proaching the Indians' camp by stealth in the 
dead of night, they secured two of the horses, 
upon which they fled at top speed. In turn 

151 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

they were immediately pursued by a detach- 
ment of the Indians, mounted upon their fleet- 
est horses; and suffered the humiliation of re- 
capture two days later. Indulging in wild 
hilarity over the capture of the crestfallen 
whites, the Indians took a bell from one of 
the horses and, fastening it about Boone's 
neck, compelled him under the threat of bran- 
dished tomahawks to caper about and jingle the 
bell, jeering at him the while with the derisive 
query, uttered in broken English: "Steal 
horse, eh?" With as good grace as they could 
summon — wry smiles at best — Boone and 
Stewart patiently endured these humiliations, 
following the Indians as captives. Some days 
later (about January 4, 1770), while the vigi- 
lance of the Indians was momentarily relaxed, 
the captives suddenly plunged into a dense 
cane-brake and in the subsequent confusion 
succeeded in effecting their escape. Finding 
their camp deserted upon their return, Boone 
and Stewart hastened on and finally overtook 
their companions. Here Boone was both sur- 
prised and delighted to encounter his brother 

152 



DANIEL BOONE IN KENTUCKY 

Squire, loaded down with supplies. Having 
heard nothing from Boone, the partners of the 
land company had surmised that he and his 
party must have run short of ammunition, 
flour, salt, and other things sorely needed in the 
wilderness ; and because of their desire that the 
party should remain, in order to make an ex- 
haustive exploration of the country, Squire 
Boone had been sent to him with supplies. 100 
Findlay, Holden, Mooney, and Cooley re- 
turned to the settlements; but Stewart, Squire 
Boone, and Alexander Neely, who had accom- 
panied Squire, threw in their lot with the in- 
trepid Daniel, and fared forth once more to the 
stirring and bracing adventures of the Ken- 
tucky wilderness. In Daniel Boone's own 
words, he expected "from the furs and peltries 
they had an opportunity of taking . . . to re- 
cruit his shattered circumstances ; discharge the 
debts he had contracted by the adventure ; and 
shortly return under better auspices, to settle 
the newly discovered country." 101 

Boone and his party now stationed them- 
selves near the mouth of the Red River, and 

153 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

soon provided themselves, against the hard- 
ships of the long winter, with jerk, bear's oil, 
buffalo tallow, dried buffalo tongues, fresh 
meat, and marrow-bones as food, and buffalo 
robes and bearskins as shelter from the in- 
clement weather. Neely had brought with 
him, to while away dull hours, a copy of "Gulli- 
ver's Travels"; and in describing Neely's suc- 
cessful hunt for buffalo one day, Boone in 
after years amusingly deposed: "In the year 
1770 I encamped on Red River with five other 
men, and we had with us for our amusement 
the History of Samuel Gulliver's Travels, 
wherein he gave an account of his young mas- 
ter, Glumdelick, careing him on market day 
for a show to a town called Lulbegrud. A 
young man of our company called Alexander 
Neely came to camp and told us he had been 
that day to Lulbegrud, and had killed two 
Brobdignags in their capital." 102 Far from 
unlettered were pioneers who indulged together 
in such literary chat and gave to the near-by 
creek the name (after Dean Swift's Lorbrul- 
grud) of Lulbegrud which name, first seen 

154 



DANIEL BOONE IN KENTUCKY 

on Filson's map of Kentucky (1784), it bears 
to this day. From one of his long, solitary 
hunts Stewart never returned; and it was not 
until five years later, while cutting out the 
Transylvania Trail, that Boone and his com- 
panions discovered, near the old crossing at 
Rockcastle, Stewart's remains in a standing 
hollow sycamore. The wilderness never gave 
up its tragic secret. 

The close of the winter and most of the 
spring were passed by the Boones, after 
Neely's return to the settlements, in explora- 
tion, hunting, and trapping beaver and otter, 
in which sport Daniel particularly excelled. 
Owing to the drain upon their ammunition, 
Squire was at length compelled to return to the 
settlements for supplies; and Daniel, who re- 
mained alone in the wilderness to complete his 
explorations for the land company, must often 
have shared the feelings of Balboa as, from 
lofty knob or towering ridge, he gazed over the 
waste of forest which spread from the dim out- 
lines of the Alleghanies to the distant waters 
of the Mississippi. He now proceeded to 

155 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

make those remarkable solitary explorations of 
Kentucky which have given him immortality 
— through the valley of the Kentucky and the 
Licking, and along the "Belle Riviere" (Ohio) 
as low as the falls. He visited the Big Bone 
Lick and examined the wonderful fossil re- 
mains of the mammoth found there. Along 
the great buffalo roads, worn several feet be- 
low the surface of the ground, which led to the 
Blue Licks, he saw with amazement and de- 
light thousands of huge shaggy buffalo gam- 
boling, bellowing, and making the earth rum- 
ble beneath the trampling of their hooves. 
One day, while upon a cliff near the junction 
of the Kentucky and Dick's Rivers, he sud- 
denly found himself hemmed in by a party of 
Indians. Seizing his only chance of escape, 
he leaped into the top of a maple tree growing 1 
beneath the cliffs and, sliding to safety full 
sixty feet below, made his escape, pursued by 
the sound of a chorus of guttural "Ughs" from 
the dumbfounded savages. 

Finally making his way back to the old 
camp, Daniel was rejoined there by Squire 

156 



DANIEL BOONE IN KENTUCKY 

on July 27, 1770. During the succeeding 
months, much of their time was spent in hunt- 
ing and prospecting in Jessamine County, 
where two caves are still known as Boone's 
caves. Eventually, when ammunition and 
supplies had once more run low, Squire was 
compelled a second time to return to the settle- 
ments. Perturbed after a time by Squire's 
failure to rejoin him at the appointed time, 
Daniel started toward the settlements, in search 
of him; and by a stroke of good fortune en- 
countered him along the trail. Overjoyed at 
this meeting (December, 1770) the indomita- 
ble Boones once more plunged into the wil- 
derness, determined to conclude their explora- 
tions by examining the regions watered by the 
Green and Cumberland rivers and their tribu- 
taries. In after years, Gasper Mansker, the 
old German scout, was accustomed to describe 
with comic effect the consternation created 
among the Long Hunters, while hunting one 
day on Green River, by a singular noise which 
they could not explain. Steathily slipping 
from tree to tree, Mansker finally beheld with 

157 



\ 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

mingled surprise and amusement a hunter, 
bare-headed, stretched flat upon his back on 
a deerskin spread on the ground, singing mer- 
rily at the top of his voice! It was Daniel 
Boone, joyously whiling away the solitary 
hours in singing one of his favorite songs of 
the border. In March, 1771, after spending 
some time in company with the Long Hunters, 
the Boones, their horses laden with furs, set 
their faces homeward. On their return jour- 
ney, near Cumberland Gap, they had the 
misfortune to be surrounded by a party of 
Indians who robbed them of their guns and all 
their peltries. With this humiliating conclu- 
sion to his memorable tour of exploration, 
Daniel Boone, as he himself says, "once more 
reached home after experiencing hardships 
which would defy credulity in the recital." 103 

Despite the hardships and the losses, Boone 
had achieved the ambition of years : he had seen 
Kentucky, which he "esteemed a second para- 
dise." The reports of his extended explora- 
tions, which he made to Judge Henderson, 
were soon communicated to the other partners 

158 



DANIEL UOONE IN KENTUCKY 

of the land company; and their letters of this 
period, to one another, bristle with glowing and 
minute descriptions of the country, as detailed 
by their agent. Boone was immediately en- 
gaged to act in the company's behalf to sound 
the Cherokees confidentially with respect to 
their willingness to lease or sell the beautiful 
hunting-grounds of the trans-Alleghany. 104 
The high hopes of Henderson and his asso- 
ciates at last gave promise of brilliant real- 
ization. Daniel Boone's glowing descriptions 
of Kentucky excited in their minds, says a 
gifted early chronicler, the "spirit of an enter- 
prise which in point of magnitude and peril, 
as well as constancy and heroism displayed in 
its execution, has never been paralleled in the 
history of America." 



159 



CHAPTER XI 

THE REGULATORS 

It is not a persons labour, nor yet his effects that will do, 
but if he has but one horse to plow with, one bed to lie on, 
or one cow to give a little milk for his children, they must all 
go to raise money which is not to be had. And lastly if his 
personal estate (sold at one tenth of its value) will not do, 
then his lands (which perhaps has cost him many years of 
toil and labour) must go the same way to satisfy these cursed 
hungry caterpillars, that are eating and will eat out the 
bowels of our Commonwealth, if they be not pulled down 
from their nests in a very short time. 

— George Sims: A Serious Address to the In- 
habitants of Granville County, containing an 
Account of our deplorable Situation we suffer 
. . . and some necessary Hints with Respect 
to a Reformation. June 6, 1765. 

IT is highly probable that even at the time 
of his earlier explorations in behalf of 
Richard Henderson and Company, Daniel 
Boone anticipated speedy removal to the West. 
Indeed, in the very year of his first tour in 
their interest, Daniel and his wife Rebeckah 
sold all their property in North Carolina, con- 
sisting of their home and six hundred and forty 

160 



THE REGULATORS 

acres of land, and after several removals estab- 
lished themselves upon the upper Yadkin. 
This removal and the later western explora- 
tions just outlined were due not merely to the 
spirit of adventure and discovery. Three 
other causes also were at work. In the first 
place there was the scarcity of game. For 
fifteen years the shipments of deerskins from 
Bethabara to Charleston steadily increased; 
and the number of skins bought by Gammern, 
the Moravian storekeeper, ran so high that in 
spite of the large purchases made at the store 
by the hunters he would sometimes run entirely 
out of money. Tireless in the chase, the far- 
roaming Boone was among "the hunters, who 
brought in their skins from as far away as the 
Indian lands"; and the beautiful upland pas- 
tures and mountain forests, still teeming with 
deer and bear, doubtless lured him to the upper 
Yadkin, where for a time in the immediate 
neighborhood of his home abundance of game 
fell before his unerring rifle. Certainly the 
deer and other game, which were being killed 
in enormous numbers to satisfy the insatiable 

161 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

demand of the traders at Salisbury, the Forks, 
and Bethabara, became scarcer and scarcer; 
and the wild game that was left gradually fled 
to the westward. Terrible indeed was the 
havoc wrought among the elk; and it was re- 
ported that the last elk was killed in western 
North Carolina as early as 1781. 

Another grave evil of the time with which 
Boone had to cope in the back country of 
North Carolina was the growth of undisguised 
outlawry, similar to that found on the western 
plains of a later era. This ruthless brigand- 
age arose as the result of the unsettled state 
of the country and the exposed condition of 
the settlements due to the Indian alarms. 
When rude borderers, demoralized by the en- 
forced idleness attendant upon fort life during 
the dark days of Indian invasion, sallied forth 
upon forays against the Indians, they found 
much valuable property — horses, cattle, and 
stock — left by their owners when hurriedly 
fleeing to the protection of the frontier stock- 
ades. The temptations thus afforded were too 
great to resist; and the wilder spirits of the 

162 



THE REGULATORS 

backwoods, with hazy notions of private rights, 
seized the property which they found, slaugh- 
tered the cattle, sold the horses, and appro- 
priated to their own use the temporarily aban- 
doned household goods and plantation tools. 
The stealing of horses, which were needed for 
the cultivation of the soil and useful for quickly 
carrying unknown thieves beyond the reach of 
the owner and the law, became a common prac- 
tice; and was carried on by bands of outlaws 
living remote from one another and acting in 
collusive concert. 

Toward the end of July, 1755, when the 
Indian outrages upon the New River settle- 
ments in Virginia had frightened away all the 
families at the Town Fork in the Yadkin coun- 
try, William Owen, a man of Welsh stock, who 
had settled in the spring of 1752 in the upper 
Yadkin near the Mulberry Fields, was sus- 
pected of having robbed the storekeeper on the 
Meho. Not long afterward a band of outlaws 
who plundered the exposed cabins in their 
owners' absence, erected a rude fort in the 
mountain region in the rear of the Yadkin 

163 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

settlements, where they stored their ill-gotten 
plunder and made themselves secure from at- 
tack. Other members of the band dwelt in 
the settlements, where they concealed their 
robber friends by day and aided them by night 
in their nefarious projects of theft and rapine. 
The entire community was finally aroused 
by the bold depredations of the outlaws; and 
the most worthy settlers of the Yadkin coun- 
try organized under the name of Regulators 
to break up the outlaw band. When it was 
discovered that Owen, who was well known 
at Bethabara, had allied himself with the high- 
waymen, one of the justices summoned one 
hundred men; and seventy, who answered the 
call, set forth on December 26, 1755, to seek 
out the outlaws and to destroy their fortress. 
Emboldened by their success, the latter upon 
one occasion had carried off a young girl of the 
settlements. Daniel Boone placed himself at 
the head of one of the parties, which included 
the young girl's father, to go to her rescue; 
and they fortunately succeeded in effecting 
the release of the frightened maiden. One of 

164 



THE REGULATORS 

the robbers was apprehended and brought to 
Salisbury, where he was thrown into prison for 
his crimes. Meanwhile a large amount of 
plunder had been discovered at the house of 
one Cornelius Howard; and the evidences of 
his guilt so multiplied against him that he fi- 
nally confessed his connection with the outlaw 
band and agreed to point out their fort in the 
mountains 

Daniel Boone and George Boone joined the 
party of seventy men, sent out by the colonial 
authorities, under the guidance of Howard, to 
attack the stronghold of the bandits. Boone 
afterward related that the robbers' fort was 
situated in the most fitly chosen place for such 
a purpose that he could imagine — beneath an 
overhanging cliff of rock, with a large natural 
chimney, and a considerable area in front well 
stockaded. The frontiersmen surrounded the 
fort, captured five women and eleven children, 
and then burned the fort to the ground. Owen 
and his wife, Cumberland, and several others 
were ultimately made prisoners; but Harman 
and the remainder of the band escaped by 

165 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

flight. Owen and his fellow captives were 
then borne to Salisbury, incarcerated in the 
prison there, and finally (May, 1756) con- 
demned to the gallows. Owen sent word to 
the Moravians, petitioning them to adopt his 
two boys and to apprentice one to a tailor, the 
other to a carpenter. But so infuriated was 
Owen's wife by Howard's treachery that she 
branded him as a second Judas; and this at 
once fixed upon him the sobriquet "Judas" 
Howard — a sobriquet he did not live long to 
bear, for about a year later he was ambushed 
and shot from his horse at the crossing of a 
stream. He thus paid the penalty of his be- 
trayal of the outlaw band. For a number of 
years, the Regulators continued to wage war 
against the remaining outlaws, who from time 
to time committed murders as well as thefts. 
As late as January, 1768, the Regulators 
caught a horse thief in the Hollows of Surry 
County and brought him to Bethabara, whence 
Richter and Spach took him to the jail at 
Salisbury. After this year, the outlaws were 

166 



THE REGULATORS 

heard of no more; and peace reigned in the 
settlements. 

Colonel Edmund Fanning — of whom more 
anon — declared that the Regulation began in 
Anson County which bordered upon South 
Carolina. 105 Certain it is that the upper coun- 
try of that province was kept in an uproar 
by civil disturbances during this early period. 
Owing to the absence of courts in this section, 
so remote from Charleston, the inhabitants 
found it necessary, for the protection of prop- 
erty and the punishment of outlaws, to form 
an association called, like the North Carolina 
society, the Regulation. Against this associa- 
tion the horse thieves and other criminals made 
common cause, and received tacit support from 
certain more reputable persons who condemned 
"the irregularity of the Regulators." The 
Regulation which had been thus organized in 
upper South Carolina as early as 1764 led to 
tumultuous risings of the settlers; and finally 
in the effort to suppress these disorders, the 
governor, Lord Charles Montagu, appointed 

167 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

one Scovil, an utterly unworthy representa- 
tive, to carry out his commands. After vari- 
ous disorders, which became ever more unen- 
durable to the law-abiding, matters came to a 
crisis (1769) as the result of the high-handed 
proceedings of Scovil, who promiscuously 
seized and flung into prison all the Regulators 
he could lay hands on. In the month of 
March the back country rose in revolt against 
Scovil and a strong body of the settlers was on 
the point of attacking the force under his com- 
mand when an eleventh-hour letter arrived 
from Montagu, dismissing Scovil from office. 
Thus was happily averted, by the narrowest 
of margins, a threatened precursor of the fight 
at Alamance in 1771 (see Chapter XII). 
As the result of the petition of the Calhouns 
and others, courts were established in 1760, 
though not opened until four years later. 
Many horse thieves were apprehended, tried, 
and punished. Justice once more held full 
sway. 

Another important cause for Boone's re- 
moval from the neighborhood of Salisbury into 

168 



THE REGULATORS 

the mountain fastnesses was the oppressive ad- 
ministration of the law by corrupt sheriffs, 
clerks, and tax-gatherers, and the dissatisfac- 
tion of the frontier squatters with the owners 
of the soil. At the close of the year 1764 
reports reached the town of Wilmington, after 
the adjournment of the assembly in Novem- 
ber, of serious disturbances in Orange County, 
due, it was alleged, to the exorbitant exactions 
of the clerks, registers, and some of the attor- 
neys. 106 As a result of this disturbing news, 
Governor Dobbs issued a proclamation for- 
bidding any officer to take illegal fees. Trou- 
bles had been brewing in the adjacent county 
of Granville ever since the outbreak of the 
citizens against Francis Corbin, Lord Gran- 
ville's agent (January 24, 1759), and the is- 
suance of the petition of Reuben Searcy and 
others (March 23d) protesting against the 
alleged excessive fees taken and injustices prac- 
tised by Robert (Robin) Jones, the famous 
lawyer. These disturbances were cumulative 
in their effect; and the people at last (1765) 
found in George Sims, of Granville, a fit 

169 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

spokesman of their cause and a doughty cham- 
pion of popular rights. In his "Serious Ad- 
dress to the Inhabitants of Granville County, 
containing an Account of our deplorable Sit- 
uation we suffer . . . and some necessary 
Hints with Respect to a Reformation," re- 
cently brought to light, he presents a crushing 
indictment of the clerk of the county court, 
Samuel Benton, the grandfather of Thomas 
Hart Benton. After describing in detail the 
system of semi-peonage created by the merci- 
less exactions of lawyers and petty court offi- 
cials, and the insatiable greed of "these cursed 
hungry caterpillars," Sims with rude eloquence 
calls upon the people to pull them down from 
their nests for the salvation of the Common- 
wealth. 107 

Other abuses were also recorded. So ex- 
orbitant was the charge for a marriage-license, 
for instance, that an early chronicler records: 
"The consequence was that some of the inhabi- 
tants on the head-waters of the Yadkin took 
a short cut. They took each other for better 
or for worse; and considered themselves as 

170 



THE REGULATORS 

married without further ceremony." The ex- 
traordinary scarcity of currency throughout 
the colony, especially in the back country, was 
another great hardship and a perpetual source 
of vexation. All these conditions gradually 
became intolerable to the uncultured but free- 
spirited men of the back country. Events 
were slowly converging toward a crisis in gov- 
ernment and society. Independent in spirit, 
turbulent in action, the backwoodsmen revolted 
not only against excessive taxes, dishonest 
sheriffs, and extortionate fees, but also against 
the rapacious practices of the agents of Lord 
Granville. These agents industriously picked 
flaws in the titles to the lands in Granville's 
proprietary upon which the poorer settlers were 
seated ; and compelled them to pay for the land 
if they had not already done so, or else to pay 
the fees twice over and take out a new patent 
as the only remedy of the alleged defect in 
their titles. In Mecklenburg Comity the 
spirit of backwoods revolt flamed out in pro- 
test against the proprietary agents. Acting 
under instructions to survey and close bargains 

171 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

for the lands or else to eject those who held 
them, Henry Eustace McCulloh, in February, 
1765, went into the county to call a reckoning. 
The settlers, many of whom had located with- 
out deeds, indignantly retorted by offering to 
buy only at their own prices, and forbade the 
surveyors to lay out the holdings when this 
smaller price was declined. They not only 
terrorized into acquiescence those among them 
who were willing to pay the amount charged 
for the lands, but also openly declared that 
they would resist by force any sheriff in eject- 
ment proceedings. On May 7th an outbreak 
occurred ; and a mob, led by Thomas Polk, set 
upon John Frohock, Abraham Alexander, and 
others, as they were about to survey a parcel 
of land, and gave them a severe thrashing, even 
threatening the young McCulloh with death. 108 
The choleric backwoodsmen, instinctively in 
agreement with Francis Bacon, considered re- 
venge as a sort of wild justice. Especial ob- 
jects of their animosity were the brothers Fro- 
hock, John and Thomas, the latter clerk of 
the court at Salisbury, and Edmund Fanning, 

172 



THE REGULATORS 

a cultured gentleman-adventurer, associate 
justice of the superior court. So rapacious 
and extortionate were these vultures of the 
courts who preyed upon the vitals of the 
common people, that they were savagely lam- 
pooned by Rednap Howell, the backwoods 
poet-laureate of the Regulation. The temper 
of the back country is well caught in Howell's 
lines anent this early American "grafter," the 
favorite of the royal governor : 

When Fanning first to Orange came, 

He looked both pale and wan ; 
An old patched coat was on his back, 

An old mare he rode on. 

Both man and mare wan't worth five pounds, 

As I 've been often told ; 
But by his civil robberies, 

He 's laced his coat with gold. 109 

The germs of the great westward migration 
in the coming decade were thus working among 
the people of the back country. If the tense 
nervous energy of the American people is the 
transmitted characteristic of the border set- 
tlers, who often slept with loaded rifle in hand 

173 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

in grim expectation of being awakened by the 
hideous yells, the deadly tomahawk, and the 
lurid firebrand of the savage, the very buoy- 
ancy of the national character is in equal meas- 
ure "traceable to the free democracy founded 
on a freehold inheritance of land." The de- 
sire for free land was the fundamental factor 
in the development of the American democ- 
racy. No colony exhibited this tendency more 
signally than did North Carolina in the turbu- 
lent days of the Regulation. The North 
Carolina frontiersmen resented the obligation 
to pay quit-rents and firmly believed that the 
first occupant of the soil had an indefeasible 
right to the land which he had won with his 
rifle and rendered productive by the imple- 
ments of toil. Preferring the dangers of the 
free wilderness to the paying of tribute to ab- 
sentee landlords and officials of an intolerant 
colonial government, the frontiersman found 
title in his trusty rifle rather than in a piece of 
parchment, and was prone to pay his obliga- 
tions to the owner of the soil in lead rather 
than in gold. 

174 



CHAPTER XII 

WATAUGA — HAVEN OF LIBERTY 

The Regulators despaired of seeing better times and there- 
fore quitted the Province. It is said 1,500 departed since 
the Battle of Alamance and to my knowledge a great many 
more are only waiting to dispose of their plantations in order 
to follow them. 

— Reverend Morgan Edwards, 1772. 

THE five years (1766-1771) which saw the 
rise, development, and ultimate defeat of 
the popular movement known as the Regula- 
tion, constitute a period not only of extraordi- 
nary significance in North Carolina but also 
of fruitful consequences in the larger move- 
ments of westward expansion. With the reso- 
lute intention of having their rulers "give ac- 
count of their stewardship," to employ their 
own words, the Sandy Creek Association of 
Baptists (organized in 1758), in a series of 
papers known as Regulators' Advertisements 
(1766-8) proceeded to mature, through popu- 

175 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

lar gatherings, a rough form of initiative and 
referendum. At length, discouraged in its ef- 
forts, and particularly in the attempt to bring 
county officials to book for charging illegal 
fees, this association ceased actively to func- 
tion. It was the precursor of a movement 
of much more drastic character and formidable 
proportions, chiefly directed against Colonel 
Edmund Fanning and his associates. This 
movement doubtless took its name, "the Regu- 
lation," from the bands of men already de- 
scribed who were organized first in North 
Carolina and later in South Carolina, to put 
down highwaymen and to correct many abuses 
in the back country, such as the tyrannies of 
Scovil and his henchmen. Failing to secure 
redress of their grievances through legal chan- 
nels, the Regulators finally made such a pow- 
erful demonstration in support of their refusal 
to pay taxes that Governor William Tryon 
of North Carolina, in 1768, called out the pro- 
vincial militia, and by marching with great 
show of force through the disaffected regions, 
succeeded temporarily in overawing the people 

176 



WATAUGA— HAVEN OF LIBERTY 

and thus inducing them to pay their assess- 
ments. 11 " 

The suits which had been brought by the 
Regulators against Edmund Fanning, regis- 
ter, and Francis Nash, clerk, of Orange 
County, resulted in both being "found guilty 
of taking too high fees." ni Fanning imme- 
diately resigned his commission as register; 
while Nash, who in conjunction with Fanning 
had fairly offered in 1766 to refund to any 
one aggrieved any fee charged by him which 
the Superior Court might hold excessive, gave 
bond for his appearance at the next court. 
Similar suits for extortion against the three 
Frohocks in Rowan County in 1769 met with 
failure, however ; and this outcome aroused the 
bitter resentment of the Regulators, as re- 
corded by Herman Husband in his "Impartial 
Relation." During this whole period the in- 
surrectionary spirit of the people, who felt 
themselves deeply aggrieved but recognized 
their inability to secure redress, took the form 
of driving local justices from the bench and 
threatening court officials with violence. 

177 



An Impaitial 

RELATION 

O F T H E 

Firft Rife and Caufe 

O F T H E 

Recent DIFFERENCES, 

1 N 

PUBLICK AFFAIRS, 

In the Province of North-Ca- 
rolina ; and of the paft Tu~ 
muhs and Riots that lately 
happened in that- Province. 

Containing moft of the true and genuine 

Copies of Letters, Meffages and Rfimonftrances, 
between the Parties contending r— — By which? 
any impartial Man may eafily gatherand fee the 
true Ground and Reaibns of the <t&aeWfac"tioit 
that univcrfally reigns all over {aid Province ia 
a wore or lefs Degree. 



Printed for the Cpmpiler. 1770, 
178 



WATAUGA— HAVEN OF LIBERTY 

At the session of the Superior Court at 
Hillsborough, September 22, 1770, an elabo- 
rate petition prepared by the Regulators, de- 
manding unprejudiced juries and the public 
accounting for taxes by the sheriffs, was 
handed to the presiding justice by James 
Hunter, a leading Regulator. This justice 
was our acquaintance, Judge Richard Hender- 
son, of Granville County, the sole high officer 
in the provincial government from the entire 
western section of the colony. In this petition 
occur these trenchant words: "As we are 
serious and in good earnest and the cause re- 
spects the whole body of the people it would 
be loss of time to enter into arguments on par- 
ticular points for though there are a few men 
who have the gift and art of reasoning, yet 
every man has a feeling and knows when he 
has justice done him as well as the most 
learned." 112 On the following Monday (Sep- 
tember 24th), upon convening of court, some 
one hundred and fifty Regulators, led by 
James Hunter, Herman Husband, Rednap 
Howell, and others, armed with clubs, whips, 

179 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

and cudgels, surged into the court-room and 
through their spokesman, Jeremiah Fields, 
presented a statement of their grievances. "I 
found myself," says Judge Henderson, "under 
a necessity of attempting to soften and turn 
away the fury of these mad people, in the best 
manner in my power, and as such could well 
be, pacify their rage and at the same time pre- 
serve the little remaining dignity of the 
court." 113 

During an interim, in which the Regulators 
retired for consultation, they fell without warn- 
ing upon Fanning and gave him such rough 
treatment that he narrowly escaped with his 
life. The mob, now past control, horsewhipped 
a number of leading lawyers and citizens 
gathered there at court, and treated others, 
notably the courtly Mr. Hooper of Boston, 
"with every mark of contempt and insult." 
Judge Henderson was assured by Fields that 
no harm should come to him provided he would 
conduct the court in accordance with the behest 
of the Regulators: namely, that no lawyer, 
save the King's Attorney, should be admitted 

180 



WATAUGA— HAVEN OF LIBERTY 

to the court, and that the Regulators' cases 
should be tried with new jurors chosen by the 
Regulators. With the entire little village ter- 
rorized by this campaign of "frightfulness," 
and the court wholly unprotected, Judge Hen- 
derson reluctantly acknowledged to himself 
that "the power of the judiciary was ex- 
hausted." Nevertheless, he says, "I made 
eveiy effort in my power consistent with my 
office and the duty the public is entitled to claim 
to preserve peace and good order." 114 Agree- 
ing under duress to resume the session the fol- 
lowing day, the judge ordered an adjourn- 
ment. But being unwilling, on mature reflec- 
tion, to permit a mockery of the court and a 
travesty of justice to be staged under threat 
and intimidation, he returned that night to his 
home in Granville and left the court adjourned 
in course. Enraged by the judge's escape, 
the Regulators took possession of the court- 
room the following morning, called over the 
cases, and in futile protest against the condi- 
tions they were powerless to remedy, made 
profane entries which may still be seen on the 

181 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

record: "Damned rogues," "Fanning pays 
cost but loses nothing," "Negroes not worth a 
damn, Cost exceeds the whole," "Hogan pays 
and be damned," and, in a case of slander, 
"Nonsense, let them argue for Ferrell has gone 
hellward." 115 

The uprising of these bold and resolute, sim- 
ple and imperfectly educated people, which 
had begun as a constitutional struggle to se- 
cure justice and to prevent their own exploita- 
tion by dishonest lawyers of the county courts, 
now gave place to open anarchy and secret 
incendiarism. 116 In the dead of night, Novem- 
ber 12th and 14th, Judge Henderson's barn, 
stables, and dwelling house were fired by the 
Regulators and went up in flames. Glowing 
with a sense of wrong, these misguided people, 
led on by fanatical agitators, thus vented their 
indiscriminate rage, not only upon their op- 
pressors, but also upon men wholly innocent 
of injuring them — men of the stamp of Wil- 
liam Hooper, afterward signer of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, Alexander Martin, 
afterward governor and United States Sena- 

182 



It 

f H 

- s 



ii 




WATAUGA— HAVEN OF LIBERTY 

tor, and Richard Henderson, popular repre- 
sentative of the back country and a firm cham- 
pion of due process of law. It is perhaps not 
surprising in view of these events that Gov- 
ernor Tryon and the ruling class, lacking a 
sympathy broad enough to ensure justice to 
the oppressed people, seemed to be chiefly im- 
pressed with the fact that a widespread in- 
surrection was in progress, threatening not 
only life and property, but also civil govern- 
ment itself. The governor called out the mili- 
tia of the province and led an army of well- 
nigh one thousand men and officers against 
the Regulators, who had assembled at Ala- 
mance to the number of two thousand. Tryon 
stood firm upon the demands that the people 
should submit to government and disperse at 
a designated hour. The Regulators, on their 
side, hoped to secure the reforms they desired 
by intimidating the governor with a great dis- 
play of force. The battle was a tragic fiasco 
for the Regulators, who fought bravely, but 
without adequate arms or real leadership. 
With the conclusion of this desultory action, a 

183 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

fight lasting about two hours (May 16, 1771) , 
the power of the Regulators was completely 
broken. 117 

Among these insurgents there was a remark- 
able element — an element whose influence 
upon the course of American history has been 
but imperfectly understood — which now looms 
into prominence as the vanguard of the army 
of westward expansion. There were some of 
the Regulators who, though law-abiding and 
conservative, were deeply imbued with ideas 
of liberty, personal independence, and the 
freedom of the soil. Through the influence of 
Benjamin Franklin, with whom one of the 
leaders of the group, Herman Husband, was 
in constant correspondence, the patriotic ideas 
then rapidly maturing into revolutionary sen- 
timents furnished the inspiration to action. 
As early as 1766, the Sandy Creek leaders, re- 
ferred to earlier in this chapter, issued a call 
to each neighborhood to send delegates to a 
gathering for the purpose of investigating the 
question "whether the free men of this country 
labor under any abuses of power or not." The 

184 



WATAUGA— HAVEN OF LIBERTY 

close connection between the Sandy Creek men 
and the Sons of Liberty is amply demonstrated 
in this paper wherein the Sons of Liberty in 
connection with the "stamp law" are praised 
for "redeeming us from Tyranny" and for hav- 
ing "withstood the lords in Parliament in be- 
half of true liberty." 11S Upon the records of 
the Dutchman's Creek Church, of "regular" 
Baptists, at the Forks of the Yadkin, to which 
Daniel Boone's family belonged, may be found 
this memorable entry, recognizing the "Amer- 
ican Cause" well-nigh a year before the declar- 
ation of independence at Philadelphia: "At 
the monthly meeting it was agreed upon con- 
cerning the American Cause, if any of the 
brethren see cause to join it they have the lib- 
erty to do it without being called to an account 
by the church. But whether they join or do 
not join they should be used with brotherly 
love." 119 

The fundamental reasons underlying the 
approaching westward hegira are found in the 
remarkable petition of the Regulators of An- 
son County (October 9, 1769), who request 

185 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

that "Benjamin Franklin or some other known 
patriot" be appointed agent of the province 
in London to seek redress at the source. They 
exposed the basic evil in the situation by point- 
ing out that, in violation of the law restricting 
the amount of land that might be granted to 
each person to six hundred and forty acres, 
much of the most fertile territory in the prov- 
ince had been distributed in large tracts to 
wealthy landlords. In consequence "great 
numbers of poor people are necessitated to toil 
in the cultivation of the bad Lands whereon 
they hardly can subsist." 120 It was these poor 
people, "thereby deprived of His Majesties 
liberality and Bounty," who soon turned their 
gaze to the westward and crossed the moun- 
tains in search of the rich, free lands of the 
trans-Alleghany region. 

This feverish popular longing for freedom, 
stimulated by the economic pressure of thou- 
sands of pioneers who were annually entering 
North Carolina, set in motion a wave of migra- 
tion across the mountains in 1769. Long be- 
fore Alamance, many of the true Americans, 

186 



WATAUGA— HAVEN OF LIBERTY 

distraught by apparently irremediable injus- 
tices, plunged fearlessly into the wilderness, 
seeking beyond the mountains a new birth of 
liberty, lands of their own selection free of 
cost or quit-rents, and a government of their 
own choosing and control. 121 The glad news 
of the rich valleys beyond the mountains early 
lured such adventurous pioneers as Andrew 
Greer and Julius Csesar Dugger to the Wa- 
tauga country. The glowing stories, told by 
Boone, and disseminated in the back country 
by Henderson, Williams, and the Harts, 
seemed to give promise to men of this stamp 
that the West afforded relief from oppressions 
suffered in North Carolina. During the 
winter of 1768-9 there was also a great rush 
of settlers from Virginia into the valley of the 
Holston. A party from Augusta County, led 
by men who had been delighted with the coun- 
try viewed seven years before when they were 
serving under Colonel William Byrd against 
the Cherokees, found that this region, a wil- 
derness on their outward passage in 1768, was 
dotted with cabins on every spot where the 

187 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

grazing was good, upon their return the fol- 
lowing year. Writing to Hillsborough on 
October 18, 1770, concerning the "many hun- 
dred families" in the region from Green River 
to the branches of the Holston, who refused 
to comply with the royal proclamation of 
1763, Acting- Governor Nelson of Virginia 
reports that "very little if any Quit Rents 
have been received for His Majesty's use from 
that Quarter for some time past" — the people 
claiming that "His Majesty hath been pleased 
to withdraw his protection from them since 
1763." 122 

In the spring of 1770, with the express in- 
tention of discovering suitable locations for 
homes for himself and a number of others, who 
wished to escape the accumulating evils of the 
times, James Robertson of Orange County, 
North Carolina, made an arduous journey to 
the pleasing valley of the Watauga. Robert- 
son, who was born in Brunswick County, Vir- 
ginia, June 28, 1742, of excellent Scotch-Irish 
ancestry, was a noteworthy figure of a certain 
type — quiet, reflective, conservative, wise, a 

188 




JAMES ROBERTSON 

From the composite portrait by Washington B. Cooper. 
Courtesy Tennessee Historical Society 



WATAUGA— HAVEN OF LIBERTY 

firm believer in the basic principles of civil 
liberty and the right of local self-government. 
Robertson spent some time with a man named 
Honeycut in the Watauga region, raised a 
crop of corn, and chose for himself and his 
friends suitable locations for settlement. Lost 
upon his return in seeking the mountain defiles 
traversed by him on the outward journey, Rob- 
ertson probably escaped death from starva- 
tion only through the chance passing of two 
hunters who succored him and set him upon 
the right path. On arriving in Orange he 
found political and social conditions there 
much worse than before, many of the colonists 
declining to take the obligatory oath of alle- 
giance to the British Crown after the Battle 
of Alamance, preferring to carve out for them- 
selves new homes along the western waters. 
Some sixteen families of this stamp, indignant 
at the injustices and oppressions of British 
rule, and stirred by Robertson's description 
of the richness and beauty of the western coun- 
try, accompanied him to Watauga shortly 
after the battle. 

189 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

This vanguard of the army of westward ad- 
vance, independent Americans in spirit with 
a negligible sprinkling of Loyalists, now 
swept in a great tide into the northeastern sec- 
tion of Tennessee. The men of Sandy Creek, 
actuated by independent principles but out of 
sympathy with the anarchic side of the Regu- 
lation, left the colony almost to a man. 
"After the defeat of the Regulators," says the 
historian of the Sandy Creek Association, 
"thousands of the oppressed, seeing no hope 
of redress for their grievances, moved into 
and settled east Tennessee. A large pro- 
portion of these were of the Baptist popula- 
tion. Sandy Creek Church which some time 
previous to 1771, numbered 606, was after- 
ward reduced to fourteen members!" 123 This 
movement exerted powerful influence in 
stimulating westward expansion. Indeed, 
it was from men of Regulating principles 
— Boone, Robertson, and the Searcys — who 
vehemently condemned the anarchy and 
incendiarism of 1770, that Judge Hen- 
derson received powerful cooperation in 

190 



WATAUGA— HAVEN OF LIBERTY 

the opening up of Kentucky and Ten- 
nessee. 124 

The several treaties concerning the western 
boundary of white settlement, concluded in 
close succession by North Carolina, Virginia, 
and the Crown with the Southern and North- 
ern Indians, had an important bearing upon 
the settlement of Watauga. The Cherokee 
boundary line, as fixed by Governor Tryon 
(1767) and by John Stuart (1768), ran from 
Reedy River to Tryon Mountain, thence 
straight to Chiswell's Mine, and thence di- 
rect to the mouth of the Great Kanawha 
River. By the treaty at Fort Stanwix (No- 
vember 5, 1768), in the negotiation of which 
Virginia was represented by Dr. Thomas 
Walker and Major Andrew Lewis, the Six 
Nations sold to the Crown their shadowy 
claim to a vast tract of western country, in- 
cluding in particular all the land between 
the Ohio and the Tennessee Rivers. The news 
of the cession resulted in a strong southwest- 
ward thrust of population, from the neighbor- 
hood of Abingdon, in the direction of the Hol- 

191 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

ston Valley. 125 Recognizing that hundreds of 
these settlers were beyond the line negotiated 
by Stuart, but on lands not yet surveyed, Gov- 
ernor Botetourt instructed the Virginia com- 
missioners to press for further negotiations, 
through Stuart, with the Cherokees. Accord- 
ingly, on October 18, 1770, a new treaty was 
made at Lochaber, South Carolina, by which 
a new line back of Virginia was established, 
beginning at the intersection of the North 
Carolina-Cherokee line ( a point some seventy- 
odd miles east of Long Island), running 
thence in a west course to a point six miles 
east of Long Island, and thence in a direct 
course to the confluence of the Great Kanawha 
and Ohio Rivers. At the time of the treaty, 
it was agreed that the Holston River, from its 
intersection with the North Carolina- Virginia 
line, and down the course of the same, should 
be a temporary southern boundary of Virginia 
until the line should be ascertained by actual 
survey. 126 A strong influx of population into 
the immense new triangle thus released for set- 

192 



WATAUGA— HAVEN OF LIBERTY 

tlement brought powerful pressure to bear 
upon northern Tennessee, the point of least re- 
sistance along the western barrier. Singularly 
enough, this advance was not opposed by the 
Cherokees, whose towns were strung across the 
extreme southeast corner of Tennessee. 

When Colonel John Donelson ran the line 
in the latter part of 1771, The Little Car- 
penter, who with other Indian chiefs accom- 
panied the surveying party, urged that the line 
agreed upon at Lochaber should break off at 
the head of the Louisa River, and should run 
thence to the mouth thereof, and thence up 
the Ohio to the mouth of the Great Kanawha. 
For this increase in the territory of Virginia 
they of course expected additional payment. 
As a representative of Virginia, Donelson 
agreed to the proposed alteration in the bound- 
ary line ; and accordingly promised to send the 
Cherokees, in the following spring, a sum al- 
leged by them to have been fixed at five hun- 
dred pounds, in compensation for the addi- 
tional area. This informal agreement, it is 

193 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

ston River, south and east of Long Island; 
believed, was never ratified by Virginia; nor 
was the promised compensation ever paid the 
Cherokees. 127 

Under the belief that the land belonged to 
Virginia, Jacob Brown with one or two fam- 
ilies from North Carolina settled in 1771 upon 
a tract of land on the northern bank of the 
Nonachunheh (corruption, Nolichucky) River. 
During the same year, an experimental line 
run westward from Steep Rock and Beaver 
Creek by Anthony Bledsoe showed that upon 
the extension of the boundary line, these set- 
tlers would fall within the bounds of North 
Carolina. Although thus informally warned 
of the situation, the settlers made no move to 
vacate the lands. But in the following year, 
after the running of Donelson's line, Alexan- 
der Cameron, Stuart's deputy, required "all 
persons who had made settlements beyond the 
said line to relinquish them." Thus officially 
warned, Brown and his companions removed to 
Watauga. 128 Cameron's order did not apply, 
however, to the settlement north of the Hol- 

194 



WATAUGA— HAVEN OF LIBERTY 

and the settlement in Carter's Valley, north 
of the Holston and west of the Long Island, 
although lying without the Virginia bound- 
ary, strangely enough remained unmolested. 
The order was directed at the Watauga set- 
tlers, who were seated south of the Holston 
River in the Watauga Valley. ( See map for 
settlements and treaty lines.) 

The plight in which the Watauga settlers 
now found themselves was truly desperate; 
and the way in which they surmounted this 
apparently insuperable difficulty is one of the 
most striking and characteristic events in the 
pre-Revolutionary history of the Old South- 
west. It exhibits the indomitable will and fer- 
tile resource of the American character at the 
margin of desperation. The momentous in- 
fluence of the Watauga settlers, inadequately 
reckoned hitherto by historians, was soon to 
make itself powerfully felt in the first epochal 
movement of westward expansion. 



195 



CHAPTER XIII 

OPENING THE GATEWAY — DUNMORE's WAR 

Virginia, we conceive, can claim this Country [Kentucky] 
with the greatest justice and propriety, its within the Limits 
of their Charter. They Fought and bled for it. And had 
it not been for the memorable Battle, at the Great Kanaway 
those vast regions had yet continued inaccessable. 

— The Harrodsburg Petition. June 7-15, 1776. 

IT was fortunate for the Watauga settlers 
that the Indians and the whites were on 
the most peaceful terms with each other at the 
time the Watauga Valley was shown, by the 
running of the boundary line, to lie within the 
Indian reservation. With true American self- 
reliance, the settlers met together for delibera- 
tion and counsel, and deputed James Robert- 
son and John Been, as stated by Tennessee's 
first historian, "to treat with their landlords, 
and agree upon articles of accomodation and 
friendship. The attempt succeeded. For 
though the Indians refused to give up the land 

196 



OPENING THE GATEWAY 

gratuitously, they consented, for a stipulated 
amount of merchandise, muskets, and other 
articles of convenience, to lease all the coun- 
try on the waters of the Watauga." 129 In ad- 
dition to the land thus leased for ten years, 
several other tracts were purchased from the 
Indians by Jacob Brown, who reoccupied his 
former location on the Nolichucky. 

In taking this daring step, the Watauga 
settlers moved into the spotlight of national 
history. For the inevitable consequence of 
leasing the territory was the organization of 
a form of government for the infant settle- 
ment. Through his familiarity with the North 
Carolina type of "association," in which the 
settlers had organized for the purpose of "reg- 
ulating" abuses, and his acquaintance with the 
contents of the "Impartial Relation," in which 
Husband fully expounded the principles and 
practices of this association, Robertson was 
peculiarly fitted for leadership in organizing 
this new government. The convention at 
which Articles of Association, unfortunately 
lost, were drawn up, is noteworthy as the first 

197 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

governmental assemblage of free-born Ameri- 
can citizens ever held west of the Alleghanies. 
The government then established was the first 
free and independent government, democratic 
in spirit, representative in form, ever organ- 
ized upon the American continent. In de- 
scribing this mimic republic, the royal Gover- 
nor of Virginia says: "They appointed mag- 
istrates, and framed laws for their present oc- 
casion, and to all intents and purposes, erected 
themselves into, though an inconsiderable, yet 
a separate State." ls0 The most daring spirit 
in this little state was the young John Sevier, of 
French Huguenot family (originally spelled 
Xavier), born in Augusta County, Virginia, 
on September 23, 1745. It was from Millers- 
town in Shenandoah County where he was liv- 
ing the uneventful life of a small farmer, that 
he emigrated (December, 1773) to the Wa- 
tauga region. With his arrival there begins 
one of the most fascinating and romantic ca- 
reers recorded in the varied and stirring annals 
of the Old Southwest. In this daring and 
impetuous young fellow, fair-haired, blue- 

198 



OPENING THE GATEWAY 

eyed, magnetic, debonair — of powerful build, 
splendid proportions, and athletic skill — we 
behold the gallant exemplar of the truly heroic 
life of the border. The story of his life, thrill- 
ing in the extreme, is rich in all the multi- 
colored elements which impart romance to the 
arduous struggle of American civilization in 
the opening years of the republic. 

The creative impulses in the Watauga com- 
monwealth are hinted at by Dunmore, who 
observes, in the letter above quoted, that Wa- 
tauga "sets a dangerous example to the people 
of America, of forming governments distinct 
from and independent of his Majesty's au- 
thority." It is true that the experiment was 
somewhat limited. The organization of the 
Watauga association, which constituted a tem- 
porary expedient to meet a crisis in the affairs 
of a frontier community cut off by forest wil- 
derness and mountain barriers from the reach 
of the arm of royal or provincial government, 
is not to be compared with the revolutionary 
assemblage at Boonesborough, May 23, 1775, 
or with the extraordinary demands for inde- 

199 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

pendence in Mecklenburg County, North Car- 
olina, during the same month. Nevertheless 
the Watauga settlers defied both North Caro- 
lina and the Crown, by adopting the laws of 
Virginia and by ignoring Governor Josiah 
Martin's proclamation (March 26, 1774) "re- 
quiring the said settlers immediately to retire 
from the Indian Territories." 131 Moreover, 
Watauga really was the parent of a series of 
mimic republics in the Old Southwest, grad- 
ually tending toward higher forms of organi- 
zation, with a larger measure of individual lib- 
erty. Watauga, Transylvania, Cumberland, 
Franklin represent the evolving political gen- 
ius of a free people under the creative leader- 
ship of three constructive minds — James Rob- 
ertson, John Sevier, and Richard Henderson. 
Indeed, Watauga furnished to Judge Hender- 
son precisely the "dangerous example" of 
which Dunmore prophetically speaks. 132 

Immediately upon his return in 1771 from 
the extended exploration of Kentucky, Daniel 
Boone as already noted was engaged as secret 

200 



OPENING THE GATEWAY 

agent, to treat with the Cherokees for the lease 
or purchase of the trans- Alleghany region, on 
behalf of Judge Henderson and his associates. 
Embroiled in the exciting issues of the Regu- 
lation and absorbed by his confining duties as 
colonial judge, Henderson was unable to put 
his bold design into execution until after the 
expiration of the court itself which ceased to 
exist in 1773. Disregarding the royal procla- 
mation of 1763 and Locke's Fundamental 
Constitutions for the Carolinas, which forbade 
private parties to purchase lands from the In- 
dians, Judge Henderson applied to the high- 
est judicial authorities in England to know if 
there was any law in existence forbidding pur- 
chase of lands from the Indian tribes. Lord 
Mansfield gave Judge Henderson the "sanc- 
tion of his great authority in favor of the pur- 
chase." 133 Lord Chancellor Camden and Mr. 
Yorke had officially advised the King in 1757, 
in regard to the petition of the East Indian 
Company, "that in respect to such territories 
as have been, or shall be acquired by treaty or 

201 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

grant from the Great Mogul, or any of the 
Indian princes or governments, your Maj- 
esty's letters patent are not necessary; the 
property of the soil vesting in the company by 
the Indian grant subject only to your Maj- 
esties right of sovereignty over the settlements, 
as English settlements, and over the inhabit- 
ants, as English subjects, who carry with them 
your Majesties laws wherever they form colo- 
nies, and receive your Majesties protection by 
virtue of your royal charters." 134 This opin- 
ion, with virtually no change, was rendered in 
regard to the Indian tribes of North America 
by the same two authorities, certainly as early 
as 1769; 135 and a true copy, made in London, 
April 1, 1772, was transmitted to Judge Hen- 
derson. 136 Armed with the legal opinions re- 
ceived from England, Judge Henderson was 
fully persuaded that there was no legal bar 
whatsoever to his seeking to acquire by pur- 
chase from the Cherokees the vast domain of 
the trans-Alleghany. 137 A golden dream of 
empire, with its promise of an independent re- 
public in the form of a proprietary colony, 

202 



OPENING THE GATEWAY 

casts him under the spell of its alluring glam- 
our. 

In the meantime, the restless Boone, impa- 
tient over the delay in the consummation of 
Judge Henderson's plans, resolved to establish 
himself in Kentucky upon his own responsi- 
bility. Heedless of the question of title and 
the certain hazards incident to invading the 
territory of hostile savages, Boone designated 
a rendezvous in Powell's Valley where he and 
his party of five families were to be met by 
a band under the leadership of his connections, 
the Bryans, and another company led by Cap- 
tain William Russell, a daring pioneer of the 
Clinch Valley. A small detachment of 
Boone's party was fiercely attacked by Shawa- 
noes in Powell's Valley on October 10, 1773, 
and almost all were killed, including sons of 
Boone and Russell, and young John and Rich- 
ard Mendenhall of Guilford County, North 
Carolina. As the result of this bloody repulse, 
Boone's attempt to settle in Kentucky at this 
time was definitely abandoned. His failure to 
effect a settlement in Kentucky was due to that 

203 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

characteristic disregard of the territorial rights 
of the Indians which was all too common 
among the borderers of that period. 

This failure was portentous of the com- 
ing storm. The reign of the Long Hunters 
was over. Dawning upon the horizon was the 
day of stern adventurers, fixed in the desperate 
and lawless resolve to invade the trans-Alle- 
ghany country and to battle savagely with the 
red man for its possession. More successful 
than Boone was the McAfee party, five in 
number, from Botetourt County, Virginia, 
who between May 10th and September 1, 1773, 
safely accomplished a journey through Ken- 
tucky and carefully marked well-chosen sites 
for future location. 138 An ominous incident of 
the time was the veiled warning which Corn- 
stalk, the great Shawanoe chieftain, gave to 
Captain Thomas Bullitt, head of a party of 
royal surveyors, sent out by Lord Dunmore, 
Governor of Virginia. Cornstalk at Chilli- 
cothe, June 7, 1773, warned Bullitt concern- 
ing the encroachments of the whites, "designed 
to deprive us," he said, "of the hunting of the 

204 



OPENING THE GATEWAY 

country, as usual . . . the hunting we stand in 
need of to buy our clothing." During the 
preceding summer, George Rogers Clark, an 
aggressive young Virginian, with a small party, 
had descended the Ohio as low as Fish Creek, 
where he built a cabin; and in this region for 
many months various parties of surveyors were 
busily engaged in locating and surveying lands 
covered by military grants. Most significant 
of the ruthless determination of the pioneers 
to occupy by force the Kentucky area was 
the action of the large party from Monon- 
gahela, some forty in number, led by Captain 
James Harrod, who penetrated to the present 
Miller County, where in June, 1774, they made 
improvements and actually laid out a town. 

A significant, secretly conducted movement, 
of which historians have taken but little ac- 
count, was now in progress under the manipu- 
lation of Virginia's royal governor. As early 
as 1770 Dr. John Connolly proposed the estab- 
lishment of an extensive colony south of the 
Ohio ; and the design of securing such territory 
from the Indians found lodgment in the mind 

205 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

of Lord Dunmore. But this design was for 
the moment thwarted when on October 28, 
1773, an order was issued from the Privy- 
Council chamber in Whitehall granting an im- 
mense territory, including all of the present 
West Virginia and the land alienated to Vir- 
ginia by Donelson's agreement with the Chero- 
kees (1772), to a company including Thomas 
Walpole, Samuel Wharton, Benjamin Frank- 
lin, and others. This new colony, to be named 
"Vandalia," seemed assured. A clash between 
Dunmore and the royal authorities was immi- 
nent ; for Virginia under her sea-to-sea charter 
claimed the vast middle region of the continent, 
extending without known limit to west and 
northwest. Moreover, Dunmore was inter- 
ested in great land speculations on his own ac- 
count; and while overtly vindicating Virginia's 
claim to the trans- Alleghany by despatching 
parties of surveyors to the western wilder- 
ness to locate and survey lands covered by 
military grants, he with the collusion of cer- 
tain members of the "Honourable Board," 
his council, as charged by Washington, was 

206 



OPENING THE GATEWAY 

more than "lukewarm," secretly restricting 
as rigorously as he dared the extent and 
number of the soldiers' allotments. Accord- 
ing to the famous Virginia Remonstrance, he 
was in league with "men of great influence 
in some of the neighboring states" to secure, 
under cover of purchases from the Indians, 
large tracts of country between the Ohio and 
the Mississippi. 139 In shaping his plans Dun- 
more had the shrewd legal counsel of Patrick 
Henry, who was equally intent upon making 
for himself a private purchase from the Chero- 
kees. It was Henry's legal opinion that the 
Indiana purchase from the Six Nations by the 
Pennsylvania traders at Fort Stanwix (No- 
vember 5, 1768) was valid; and that purchase 
by private individuals from the Indians gave 
full and ample title. 140 In consequence of 
these facts, William Murray, in behalf of him- 
self and his associates of the Illinois Land 
Company, and on the strength of the Camden- 
Yorke decision, purchased two large tracts, on 
the Illinois and Ohio respectively, from the 
Illinois Indians (July 5, 1773) ; and in order 

207 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

to win the support of Dunmore, who was am- 
bitious to make a fortune in land speculation, 
organized a second company, the Wabash 
(Ouabache) Land Company, with the gover- 
nor as the chief share-holder. In response to 
Murray's petition on behalf of the Illinois 
Land Company, Dunmore (May, 1774) rec- 
ommended it to Lord Dartmouth, Secretary 
of State for the Colonies, and urged that it be 
granted ; and in a later letter he disingenuously 
disclaimed any personal interest in the Illinois 
speculation. 

The party of surveyors sent out under the 
direction of Colonel William Preston, on the 
request of Washington and other leading east- 
ern men, in 1774 located lands covered by 
military grants on the Ohio and in the Ken- 
tucky area for prominent Virginians, includ- 
ing Washington, Patrick Henry, William 
Byrd, William Preston, Arthur Campbell, 
William Fleming, and Andrew Lewis, among 
others, and also a large tract for Dr. Con- 
nolly. Certain of these grants fell within 
the Vandalia area; and in his reply (Sep- 

208 



OPENING THE GATEWAY 

tember 10, 1774) to Dunmore's letter, Lord 
Dartmouth sternly censured Dunmore for 
allowing these grants, and accused the white 
settlers of having brought on, by such un- 
warrantable aggressions, the war then rag- 
ing with the Indians. This charge lay at the 
door of Dunmore himself; and there is strong 
evidence that Dunmore personally fomented 
the war, ostensibly in support of Virginia's 
charter rights, but actually in order to further 
his own speculative designs. 141 Dunmore's 
agent, Dr. Connolly, heading a party posing 
as Virginia militia, fired without provocation 
upon a delegation of Shawanoe chiefs assem- 
bled at Fort Pitt (January, 1774). Taking 
advantage of the alarming situation created 
by the conflict of the claims of Virginia and 
Pennsylvania, Connolly, inspired by Dunmore 
without doubt, then issued an incendiary circu- 
lar (April 21, 1774), declaring a state of war 
to exist. Just two weeks before the Battle 
of the Great Kanawha, Patrick Henry cate- 
gorically stated, in conversation with Thomas 
Wharton: 

209 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

that he was at Williamsburg with Ld. D. when 
Dr. Conolly first came there, that Conolly is 
a chatty, sensible man, and informed Ld. Dun- 
more of the extreme richness of the lands which 
lay on both sides of the Ohio; that the prohi- 
bitory orders which had been sent him relative 
to the land on the hither side (or Vandalia) 
had caused him to turn his thoughts to the 
opposite shore, and that as his Lordship was 
determined to settle his family in America he 
was really pursueing this war, in order to ob- 
tain by purchase or treaty from the natives a 
tract of territory on that side ; he then told me 
that he was convinced from every authority 
that the law knew, that a purchase from the 
natives was as full and ample a title as could 
be obtained, that they had Lord Camden and 
Mr. York's opinion on that head, which opin- 
ion with some others that Ld. Dunmore had 
consulted, and with the knowledge Conolly had 
given him of the quality of the country and 
his determined resolution to settle his family 
on this continent, were the real motives or 
springs of the present expedition. 142 

At this very time, Patrick Henry, in conjunc- 
tion with William Byrd 3d and others, was 
negotiating for a private purchase of lands 
from the Cherokees ; and when Wharton, after 

210 




LORD DUNMORE 

From the portrait copied by W. L. Sheppard from an original in 
England, in the Virginia State Library 



OPENING THE GATEWAY 

answering Henry's inquiry as to where he 
might buy Indian goods , remarked : "It's 
not possible you mean to enter the Indian trade 
at this period," Henry laughingly replied: 
"The wish-world is my hobby horse." "From 
whence I conclude," adds Wharton, "he has 
some prospect of making a purchase of the 
natives, but where I know not." 

The war, thus promulgated, we believe, at 
Dunmore's secret instigation and heralded by 
a series of ghastly atrocities, came on apace. 
After the inhuman murder of the family of Lo- 
gan, the Indian chieftain, by one Greathouse 
and his drunken companions (April 30th), 
Logan, who contrary to romantic views was a 
black-hearted and vengeful savage, harried the 
Tennessee and Virginia borders, burning and 
slaughtering. Unable to arouse the Chero- 
kees, owing to the opposition of Atta-kulla- 
kulla, Logan as late as July 21st said in a letter 
to the whites: "The Indians are not angry, 
only myself," and not until then did Dunmore 
begin to give full execution to his warlike 
plans. The best woodsmen of the border, 

211 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

Daniel Boone and the German scout Michael 
Stoner, having been despatched on July 27th 
by Colonel William Preston to warn the sur- 
veyors of the trans-Alleghany, made a remark- 
able journey on foot of eight hundred miles 
in sixty-one days. Harrod's company at 
Harrodsburg, a company of surveyors at Fon- 
tainebleau, Floyd's party on the Kentucky, 
and the surveyors at Mann's Lick, thus 
warned, hurried in to the settlements and were 
saved. Meanwhile, Dunmore, in command of 
the Virginia forces, invaded territory guaran- 
teed to the Indians by the royal proclamation of 
1763 and recently (1774) added to the prov- 
ince of Quebec, a fact of which he was .not 
aware, conducted a vigorous campaign, and 
fortified Camp Charlotte, near Old Chillicothe. 
Andrew Lewis, however, in charge of the other 
division of Dunmore's army, was the one des- 
tined to bear the real brunt and burden of the 
campaign. His division, recruited from the 
very flower of the pioneers of the Old South- 
west, was the most representative body of bor- 
derers of this region that up to this time had as- 

212 



OPENING THE GATEWAY 

sembled to measure strength with the red men. 
It was an army of the true stalwarts of the 
frontier, with fringed leggings and hunting- 
capes, rifles and powder-horns, hunting-knives 
and tomahawks. 

The .Battle of the Great Kanawha, at Point 
Pleasant, was fought on October 10, 1774, be- 
tween Lewis's force, eleven hundred strong, 
and the Indians, under Cornstalk, somewhat 
inferior in numbers. It was a desultory ac- 
tion, over a greatly extended front and in very 
brushy country between Crooked Creek and 
the Ohio. Throughout the long day, the In- 
dians fought with rare craft and stubborn brav- 
ery — loudly cursing the white men, cleverly 
picking off their leaders, and derisively inquir- 
ing, in regard to the absence of the fifes: 
"Where are your whistles now?" Slowly re- 
treating, they sought to draw the whites into 
an ambuscade and at a favorable moment to 
"drive the Long Knives like bullocks into the 
river." No marked success was achieved on 
either side until near sunset, when a flank 
movement directed by young Isaac Shelby 

213 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

alarmed the Indians, who mistook this party 
for the expected reinforcement under Chris- 
tian, and retired across the Ohio. In the 
morning the whites were amazed to discover 
that the Indians, who the preceding day so 
splendidly heeded the echoing call of Corn- 
stalk, "Be strong! Be strong!", had quit the 
battle-field and left the victory with the 
whites. 143 

The peace negotiated by Dunmore was dur- 
able. The governor had accomplished his pur- 
pose, defied the authority of the crown, and 
vindicated the claim of Virginia, to the en- 
thusiastic satisfaction of the backwoodsmen. 
While tendering their thanks to him and avow- 
ing their allegiance to George III, at the close 
of the campaign, the borderers proclaimed 
their resolution to exert all their powers "for 
the defense of American liberty, and for the 
support of her just rights and privileges, not 
in any precipitous, riotous or tumultuous man- 
ner, but when regularly called forth by the 
unanimous voice of our countrymen." Dun- 
more's War is epochal, in that it procured for 

214 



OPENING THE GATEWAY 

the nonce a state of peace with the Indians, 
which made possible the advance of Judge 
Henderson over the Transylvania Trail in 
1775, and, through his establishment of the 
Transylvania Fort at Boonesborough, the ulti- 
mate acquisition by the American Confedera- 
tion of the imperial domain of the trans-Alle- 
ghany. 144 



215 



CHAPTER XIV 

RICHARD HENDERSON AND THE 
TRANSYLVANIA COMPANY 

I happened to fall in company, and have a great deal 
of conversation with one of the most singular and extraordi- 
nary persons and excentric geniuses in America, and perhaps 
in the world. His name is Richard Henderson. 

— J. F. D. Smyth: A Tour in the United States 
of America. 

EARLY in 1774, chastened by his own dis- 
astrous failure the preceding autumn, 
Boone advised Judge Henderson that the time 
was auspicious for opening negotiations with 
the Cherokees for purchasing the trans-Alle- 
ghany region. 145 In organizing a company for 
this purpose, Henderson chose men of action 
and resource, leaders in the colony, ready for 
any hazard of life and fortune in this gigantic 
scheme of colonization and promotion. The 
new men included, in addition to the partners 
in the organization known as Richard Hender- 

216 



RICHARD HENDERSON 

son and Company, were Colonel John Lut- 
trell, destined to win laurels in the Revolution, 
and William Johnston, a native of Scotland, 
the leading merchant of Hillsborough. 146 

Meeting in Hillsborough on August 27, 
1774, these men organized the new company 
under the name of the Louisa Company. In 
the articles then drawn up they agreed to "rent 
or purchase" a tract of land from the Indian 
owners of the soil for the express purpose of 
"settling the country." Each partner obli- 
gated himself to "furnish his Quota of Ex- 
penses necessary towards procuring the grant." 
In full anticipation of the grave dangers to 
be encountered, they solemnly bound them- 
selves, as "equal sharers in the property," to 
"support each other with our lives and for- 
tunes." 14T Negotiations with the Indians were 
begun at once. Accompanied by Colonel Na- 
thaniel Hart and guided by the experienced 
Indian-trader, Thomas Price, Judge Hender- 
son visited the Cherokee chieftains at the Otari 
towns. After elaborate consultations, the lat- 
ter deputed the old chieftain, Atta-kulla-kulla, 

217 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

a young buck, and a squaw, "to attend the 
said Henderson and Hart to North Carolina, 
and there examine the Goods and Merchandize 
which had been by them offered as the Con- 
sideration of the purchase." The goods pur- 
chased at Cross Creek (now Fayetteville, 
North Carolina), in which the Louisa Com- 
pany "had embarked a large amount," met the 
entire approval of the Indians— the squaw in 
particular shrewdly examining the goods in 
the interest of the women of the tribe. 148 

On January 6, 1775, the company was again 
enlarged, and given the name of the Transyl- 
vania Company — the three new partners being 
David Hart, brother to Thomas and Nathan- 
iel, Leonard Henley Bullock, a prominent 
citizen of Granville, and James Hogg, of 
Hillsborough, a native Scotchman and one of 
the most influential men in the colony. In the 
elaborate agreement drawn up reference is ex- 
plicitly made to the contingency of "settling 
and voting as a proprietor and giving Rules 
and Regulations for the Inhabitants etc." 149 
Hillsborough was the actual starting-point for 

218 



RICHARD HENDERSON 

the westward movement, the first emigrants 
traveling thence to the Sycamore Shoals of the 
Watauga. In speaking of the departure of 
the settlers, the first movement of extended and 
permanent westward migration, an eye-witness 
quaintly says : "At this place [Hillsborough] 
I saw the first party of emigrant families that 
moved to Kentucky under the auspices of 
Judge Henderson. They marched out of the 
town with considerable solemnity, and to many 
their destination seemed as remote as if it had 
been to the South Sea Islands." 150 

Meanwhile, the "Proposals for the encour- 
agement of settling the lands etc.," issued on 
Christmas Day, 1774, were quickly spread 
broadcast through the colony and along the 
border. 151 It was the greatest sensation North 
Carolina had known since Alamance; and 
Archibald Neilson, deputy-auditor and naval 
officer of the colony, inquired with quizzical 
anxiety: "Pray, is Dick Henderson out of 
his head?" The most liberal terms, proffered 
by one quite in possession of his head, were 
embodied in these proposals. Land at twenty 

219 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

shillings per hundred acres was offered to 
each emigrant settling within the territory 
and raising a crop of corn before September 
1, 1775, the emigrant being permitted to take 
up as much as five hundred acres for him- 
self and two hundred and fifty acres for each 
tithable person under him. In these "Pro- 
posals" there was no indication that the low 
terms at which the lands were offered would 
be maintained after September 1, 1775. 152 In 
a letter to Governor Dunmore (January, 
1775), Colonel William Preston, county sur- 
veyor of Fincastle County, Virginia, says: 
"The low price he [Henderson] proposes to 
sell at, together with some further encourage- 
ment he offers, will I am apprehensive induce 
a great many families to remove from this 
County (Fincastle) & Carolina and settle 
there." 153 Joseph Martin, states his son, "was 
appointed entry-Taker and agent for the Pow- 
ell Valley portion" of the Transylvania Pur- 
chase on January 20, 1775; and "he (Joseph 
Martin) and others went on in the early part 
of the year 1775 and made their stand at the 

£20 



fi R . Hairy Skelton, of Albemarle County, 



■a- » -"- h :-. 3 Bon ; . 
t'vTBty, 5oi »ix ■, I ■ 

lilt; If It fl'< 

forewarn all Perfoi 
a; 1 do not appi 
Shilling, but that 1 



/-- 



h Mr, David Andcrfi >/i t Jttn. Sc- 
the 1 6 1 1 ■. Day of Itbruayij-y, 
v of Fflntttity laft i 'J his is ta 
^Ifighment of laid Bond, 
dcbtcd Co the laid Sbeltcn a fingle 
.inyDeljt. , * . 

ANDERSON, Junior,- 



/A COMPANY 6| Gentlemen of North 

J- -*- Carolina bavin", Tor a large and valuable Confide.- 
purcbafcd from the Chief: of the Cherokee Indians, bybndwilh . 
Confcnt of the whole Nation, a confiderabie Tract of tlitii i 
now call ti.TranJylvataet, lying on theKiveisOWo, Oumberltnti 
Louifa; and junderftanding that many People are cU-firous 'tr' be- 

Adventiin i.- in that :pMt of the World, and wi/h to'-.. . 
the Term* "ii which Lands in that Country may be had, the,- ,. 
fore hereby inform the PabJicj that anyPerfon who will fetdc on 
and- inhabit the t me befoi ' the firft Day of 'June \n<i* (hall h 
the Privilege of taking up ar.d furveying for himfelf 500 Acus and 
for each tithnble Perfon he may carry with him and fettle thei 
Acres, on the Paymenlof 50s. Sterling per Hundred, ttib]< 
an yearly Quitrent of is. like Money, to'commence ih th< i 
1780. Such Pei Ions as are willing to become Purchaicrs m .. 1 
reJJiond and treat with Wr. WWimr. Joknfon in Hi'dftorough, and 
Col. Jehn Williams of Greuewlte, Nertt Catdllna, or Col. Richard , 

Henderfm it Bccnjlwrcitgh; in Tranjylvatita, ThisCountry lies .' 

en the tenth Side c!' the Rivers Olio and Louifa, in a temperate and 
healthy Climate. It is in general well watered with Springs and ' 
Rivulets, and has kveral Rivets, up which Vefl'els of conhdcrable 
Bui then may come with Eafe. In different Places of it are a Num~. 
her of Salt Springs' where the making of Salt has been tried with 
pi eat Sue e< t's, and where, with Certainty; any Quantity needed 
ma> beeafdy and conveniently made. Large Trails of the land 
lie t>l\ Lime-Hone, and iii fijveral Places there is Abundance of 
Iron Oie. The Fertility of the Soil, and Goodnefs of the Range, 
almott fut pals Belief ; and it is at preient well ftored with Rt'ffalo, 
Elk, Deer, Bear, H aver, &c. and the Rivers abound ytajti Fiih 
of" various Kinds. Vaft Crowds of people ore daily flocKing to 
it, and m?r.v Gentlemen of the flirt Rank and Character gave bar- 
gained foi Lands in it ; fothat there is a great Appearance of a rapid 
Settlement, and that it will toon become a conliderable Colony, 
and one of" tiie moft a greeable Countries in America. (6) 

Huntingtoup, Sejt. 14, 1775. 

TH E Lands I have for fome Time paft 
advertife'd for Sale are not as yet fold. I will fell them at 
a very low Price, and allow a realisable Time of'Payjnhent for 
Part of the Money. The Reafcn why I have not fold them wu, 
tliat I would ; ;ive no Credit. 

a ANTHONY WINSTON. 



L 



ADVERTISEMENT OF THE TRANSYLVANIA COMPANY 

From The Virginia Gazette, September 30, 1775 



RICHARD HENDERSON 

very spot where he had made corn several years 
before." m In speaking of the startling de- 
sign, unmasked by Henderson, of establishing 
an independent government, Colonel Preston 
writes to George Washington of the contem- 
plated "large Purchase by one Col.° Hender- 
son of North Carolina from the Cherokees. 
... I hear that Henderson talks with great 
Freedom & Indecency of the Governor of Vir- 
ginia, sets the Government at Defiance & says 
if he once had five hundred good Fellows set- 
tled in that Country he would not Value Vir- 
ginia." 155 

Early in 1775 runners were sent off to the 
Cherokee towns to summon the Indians to the 
treaty ground at the Sycamore Shoals of the 
Watauga; and Boone, after his return from a 
hunt in Kentucky in January, was summoned 
by Judge Henderson to aid in the negotia- 
tions preliminary to the actual treaty. The 
dominating figure in the remarkable assem- 
blage at the treaty ground, consisting of 
twelve hundred Indians and several hundred 
whites, was Richard Henderson, "comely in 

221 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

person, of a benign and social disposition," 
with countenance betokening the man of strenu- 
ous action — "noble forehead, prominent nose, 
projecting chin, firm-set jaw, with kindness 
and openness of expression." Gathered about 
him, picturesque in garb and striking in ap- 
pearance, were many of the buckskin-clad lead- 
ers of the border — James Robertson, John 
Sevier, Isaac Shelby, William Bailey Smith, 
and their compeers — as well as his Carolina 
friends John Williams, Thomas and Nathaniel 
Hart, Nathaniel Henderson, Jesse Benton, 156 
and Valentine Searcy. 

Little was accomplished on the first day of 
the treaty (March 14th) ; but on the next day, 
the Cherokees offered to sell the section bar- 
gained for by Donelson acting as agent 
for Virginia in 1771. Although the Indians 
pointed out that Virginia had never paid the 
promised compensation of five hundred pounds 
and had therefore forfeited her rights, Hen- 
derson flatly refused to entertain the idea of 
purchasing territory to which Virginia had the 
prior claim. Angered by Henderson's refusal, 

222 



RICHARD HENDERSON 

The Dragging Canoe, leaping into the circle of 
the seated savages, made an impassioned speech 
touched with the romantic imagination peculiar 
to the American Indian. With pathetic elo- 
quence he dwelt upon the insatiable land-greed 
of the white men, and predicted the extinction 
of his race if they committed the insensate 
folly of selling their beloved hunting-grounds. 
Roused to a high pitch of oratorical fervor, 
the savage with uplifted arm fiercely exhorted 
his people to resist further encroachments at 
all hazards — and left the treaty ground. This 
incident brought the conference to a startling 
and abrupt conclusion. On the following day, 
however, the savages proved more tractable, 
agreeing to sell the land as far south as the 
Cumberland River. In order to secure the 
additional territory watered by the tributaries 
of the Cumberland, Henderson agreed to pay 
an additional sum of two thousand pounds. 
Upon this day there originated the ominous 
phrase descriptive of Kentucky when The 
Dragging Canoe, dramatically pointing to- 
ward the west, declared that a Dark Cloud 

223 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

hung over that land, which was known as the 
Bloody Ground. 

On the last day, March 17th, the negotia- 
tions were opened with the signing of the 
"Great Grant." The area purchased, some 
twenty millions of acres, included almost all the 
present state of Kentucky, and an immense 
tract in Tennessee, comprising all the territory 
watered by* the Cumberland River and all its 
tributaries. For "two thousand weight of 
leather in goods" Henderson purchased "the 
lands lying down Holston and between the 
Watauga lease, Colonel Donelson's line and 
Powell's Mountain" as a pathway to Kentucky 
— the deed for which was known as the "Path 
Deed." By special arrangement, Carter's 
Valley in this tract went to Carter and Lucas ; 
two days later, for two thousand pounds, 
Charles Robertson on behalf of the Watauga 
Association purchased a large tract in the val- 
leys of the Holston, Watauga, and New Riv- 
ers; and eight days later Jacob Brown pur- 
chased two large areas, including the Noli- 
chucky Valley. (Compare map.) This his- 

2M 



RICHARD HENDERSON 

toric treaty, which heralds the opening of the 
West, was conducted with absolute justice and 
fairness by Judge Henderson and his associ- 
ates. No liquor was permitted at the treaty 
ground; and Thomas Price, the ablest of the 
Cherokee traders, deposed that "he at that time 
understood the Cherokee language, so as to 
comprehend everything which was said and to 
know that what was observed on either side was 
fairly and truly translated ; that the Cherokees 
perfectly understood, what Lands were the 
subject of the Treaty. . . ." The amount 
paid by the Transylvania Company for the im- 
perial domain was ten thousand pounds ster- 
ling, in money and in goods. 157 

Although Daniel Boone doubtless assisted 
in the proceedings prior to the negotiation of 
the treaty, his name nowhere appears in the 
voluminous records of the conference. In- 
deed, he was not then present; for a fortnight 
before the conclusion of the treaty he was com- 
missioned by Judge Henderson to form a 
party of competent woodmen to blaze a pas- 
sage through the wilderness. On March 10th 

225 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

this party of thirty ax-men, under the leader- 
ship of Boone, started from the rendezvous, 
the Long Island of Holston, to engage in the 
arduous labor of cutting out the Transylvania 
Trail. 158 

Henderson, the empire-builder, now faced 
with courage and resolution the hazardous task 
of occupying the purchased territory and estab- 
lishing an independent government. No mere 
financial promoter of a vast speculative enter- 
prise, he was one of the heroic figures of the 
Old Southwest ; and it was his dauntless cour- 
age, his unwavering resolve to go forward in 
the face of all dangers, which carried through 
the armed "trek" to a successful conclusion. 
At Martin's Station, where Henderson and 
his party tarried to build a house in which to 
store their wagons, as the road could be cleared 
no further, they were joined by another party, 
of five adventurers from Prince William 
County, Virginia. 159 In Henderson's party 
were some forty men and boys, with forty pack- 
horses and a small amount of powder, lead, 

226 



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.» 



FIRST PAGE OF RICHARD HENDERSON'S DIARY 

From the original owned by the Wisconsin State Historical Society 



RICHARD HENDERSON 

salt, and garden-seeds. The warning freely 
given by Joseph Martin of the perils of the 
path was soon confirmed, as appears from the 
following entry in Henderson's diary: 

Friday the 7th. [April] About Brake of 
Day began to snow. About 11 oClock re- 
ceived a letter from Mr. Luttrells camp that 
were five persons kill d . on the road to the Can- 
tuckie by Indians. Cap*. [Nathaniel] Hart, 
uppon the receipt of this News Retreated back 
with his Company, & determined to Settle in 
the Valley to make Corn for the Cantucky 
people. The same Day Received a Letter 
from Da 11 . Boone, that his Company was fired 
uppon by Indians, Kill'd Two of his men — tho 
he kept the ground & saved the Baggage &V 6U 

The following historic letter, which reveals 
alike the dogged resolution of Boone and his 
reliance upon Henderson and his company in 
this black hour of disaster, addressed "Colonel 
Richard Henderson — these with care," is elo- 
quent in its simplicity: 

Dear Colonel: After my compliments to 
you, I shall acquaint you of our misfortunes. 

227 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

On March the 25 a party of Indians fired on 
my Company about half an hour before day, 
and killed Mr. Twitty and his negro, and 
wounded Mr. Walker very deeply, but I hope 
he will recover. 

On March the 28 as we were hunting for 
provisions, we found Samuel Tate's son, who 
gave us an account that the Indians fired on 
their camp on the 27th day. My brother and 
I went down and found two men killed and 
sculped, Thomas McDowell and Jeremiah Mc- 
Feters. I have sent a man down to all the 
lower companies in order to gather them all 
at the mouth of Otter Creek. 

My advice to you, Sir, is to come or send as 
soon as possible. Your company is desired 
greatly, for the people are very uneasy, but 
are willing to stay and venture their lives with 
you. and now is the time to fluster ate their 
[the Indians'] intentions, and keep the coun- 
try, whilst we are in it. If we give way to 
them now, it will ever be the case. This day 
we start from the battle ground, for the mouth 
of Otter Creek, where we shall immediately 
erect a Fort, which will be done before you 
can come or send, then we can send ten men 
to meet you, if you send for them. 

I am, Sir, your most obedient 
Omble Sarvent 

Daniel Boone. 
228 



RICHARD HENDERSON 

N.B. We stood on the ground and guarded 
our baggage till day, and lost nothing. We 
have about fifteen miles to Cantuck [Kentucky 
River] at Otter Creek. 161 

This dread intelligence caused the hearts of 
strong men to quail and induced some to turn 
back, but Henderson, the jurist-pioneer, was 
made of sterner stuff. At once (April 8th) he 
despatched an urgent letter in hot haste to the 
proprietors of Transylvania, enclosing Boone's 
letter, informing them of Boone's plight and 
urging them to send him immediately a large 
quantity of powder and lead, as he had been 
compelled to abandon his supply of saltpeter 
at Martin's Station. "We are all in high spir- 
its," he assures the proprietors, "and on thorns 
to fly to Boone's assistance, and join him in 
defense of so fine and valuable a country." 
Laconically eloquent is this simple entry in 
his diary: "Saturday the 8th. Started ab\ 10 
°Clock Crossed Cumberland Gap about 4 
miles met about 40 persons Returning from 
the Cantucky, on Ace*, of the Late Murders 
by the Indians could prevail on one only to 

229 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

return. Mem Several Virginians who were 
with us return'd." 

There is no more crucial moment in early 
Western history than this, in which we see the 
towering form of Henderson, clad in the pic- 
turesque garb of the pioneer, with outstretched 
arm resolutely pointing forward to the "dark 
and bloody ground," and in impassioned but 
futile eloquence pleading with the pale and 
panic-stricken fugitives to turn about, to join 
his company, and to face once more the mortal 
dangers of pioneer conquest. Significant in- 
deed are the lines : 

Some to endure, and many to fail, 
Some to conquer, and many to quail, 
Toiling over the Wilderness Trail. 

The spirit of the pioneer knight-errant inspires 
Henderson's words: "In this situation, some 
few, of genuine courage and undaunted reso- 
lution, served to inspire the rest; by the help 
of whose example, assisted by a little pride and 
some ostentation, we made a shift to march 
on with all the appearance of gallantry, and, 

230 



RICHARD HENDERSON 

cavalier like, treated every insinuation of dan- 
ger with the utmost contempt." 

Fearing that Boone, who did not even know 
that Henderson's cavalcade was on the road, 
would be unable to hold out, Henderson real- 
ized the imperative necessity for sending him 
a message of encouragement. The bold 
young Virginian, William Cocke, volunteered 
to brave alone the dangers of the murder- 
haunted trail — to undertake a ride more truly 
memorable and hazardous than that of Revere. 
"This offer, extraordinary as it was, we could 
by no means refuse," remarks Henderson, who 
shed tears of gratitude as he proffered his sin- 
cere thanks and wrung the brave messenger's 
hand. Equipped with "a good Queen Anne's 
musket, plenty of ammunition, a tomahawk, 
a large cuttoe knife [French, couteau], a 
Dutch blanket, and no small quantity of jerked 
beef," Cocke on April 10th rode off "to the 
Cantuckey to Inform Cap* Boone that we were 
on the road." The fearful apprehensions felt 
for Cocke's safety were later relieved, when 
along the road were discovered his letters in- 

231 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

forming Henderson of his arrival and of his 
having been joined on the way by Page Port- 
wood of Rowan. On his arrival at Otter 
Creek, Cocke found Boone and his men, and 
on relating his adventures, "came in for his 
share of applause." Boone at once despatched 
the master woodman, Michael Stoner, with 
pack-horses to assist Henderson's party, which 
he met on April 18th at their encampment "in 
the Eye of the Rich Land." Along with "Ex- 
cellent Beef in plenty," Stoner brought the 
story of Boone's determined stand and an ac- 
count of the erection of a rude little fortifica- 
tion which they had hurriedly thrown up to 
resist attack. With laconic significance Hen- 
derson pays the following tribute to Boone 
which deserves to be perpetuated in national 
annals: "It was owing to Boone's confidence 
in us, and the people's in him, that a stand 
was ever attempted in order to wait for our 
coming." 

In the course of their journey over the 
mountains and through the wilderness, the 
pioneers forgot the trials of the trail in the 

232 



RICHARD HENDERSON 

face of the surpassing beauties of the country. 
The Cumberlands were covered with rich un- 
dergrowth of the red and white rhododendron, 
the delicate laurel, the mountain ivy, the flame- 
azalea, the spicewood, and the cane; while the 
white stars of the dogwood and the carmine 
blossoms of the red-bud, strewn across the 
verdant background of the forest, gleamed in 
the eager air of spring. "To enter uppon a 
detail of the Beuty & Goodness of our Coun- 
try," writes Nathaniel Henderson, "would be 
a task too arduous. . . . Let it suffice to tell 
you it far exceeds any country I ever saw or 
herd off. I am conscious its out of the power 
of any man to make you clearly sensible of 
the great Beuty and Richness of Kentucky." 
Young Felix Walker, endowed with more 
vivid powers of description, says with a touch 
of native eloquence : 

Perhaps no Adventureor Since the days of 
donquicksotte or before ever felt So Cheerful & 
Hated in prospect, every heart abounded with 
Joy & excitement ... & exclusive of the 
Novelties of the Journey the advantages & 

233 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

accumalations arising on the Settlement of a 
new Country was a dazzling object with many 
of our Company. . . . As the Cain ceased, we 
began to discover the pleasing & Rapturous 
appearance of the plains of Kentucky, a New 
Sky & Strange Earth to be presented to our 
view. ... So Rich a Soil we had never Saw 
before, Covered with Clover in full Bloom, the 
Woods alive abounding in wild Game, turkeys 
so numerous that it might be said there ap- 
peared but one flock Universally Scattered in 
the woods ... it appeared that Nature in the 
profusion of her Bounties, had Spread a feast 
for all that lives, both for the Animal & Ra- 
tional World, a Sight so delightful to our View 
and grateful to our feelings almost Induced us> 
in Immitation of Columbus in Transport to 
Kiss the Soil of Kentucky, as he haild & 
Saluted the sand on his first setting his foot 
on the Shores of America. 162 

On the journey Henderson was joined in 
Powell's Valley by. Benjamin Logan, after- 
ward so famous in Kentucky annals, and a 
companion, William Galaspy. At the Crab 
Orchard they left Henderson's party; and 
turning their course westward finally pitched 
camp in the present Lincoln County, where 

234 



RICHARD HENDERSON 

Logan subsequently built a fort. On Sunday, 
April 16th, on Scaggs's Creek, Henderson 
records: "About 12 oClock Met James Mc- 
Afee with 18 other persons Returning from 
Cantucky." They advised Henderson of the 
"troublesomeness and danger" of the Indians, 
says Robert McAfee junior: "but Henderson 
assured them that he had purchased the whole 
country from the Indians, that it belonged to 
him, and he had named it Transylvania. . . . 
Robt, Samuel, and William McAfee and 3 
others were inclined to return, but James op- 
posed it, alleging that Henderson had no right 
to the land, and that Virginia had previously 
bought it. The former (6) returned with 
Henderson to Boonesborough." Among those 
who had joined Henderson's party was Abra- 
ham Hanks from Virginia, the maternal grand- 
father of Abraham Lincoln; but alarmed by 
the stories brought by Stewart and his party 
of fugitives, Hanks and Drake, as recorded 
by William Calk on that day (April 13th), 
turned back. 163 

At last the founder of Kentucky with his 
235 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

little band reached the destined goal of their 
arduous journeyings. Henderson's record on 
his birthday runs: "Thursday the 20th 
[April] Arrived at Fort Boone on the 
Mouth of Oter Creek Cantuckey River where 
we were Saluted by a running fire of about 
25 Guns; all that was then at Fort. . . . The 
men appeared in high spirits & much rejoiced 
in our arrival." It is a coincidence of his- 
toric interest that just one day after the em- 
battled farmers at Lexington and Concord 
"fired the shots heard round the world," the 
echoing shots of Boone and his sturdy back- 
woodsmen rang out to announce the arrival of 
the proprietor of Transylvania and the birth 
of the American West. 



236 



CHAPTER XV 

TKANSYLVANIA — A WILDERNESS 
COMMONWEALTH 

You are about a work of the utmost importance to the 
well-being of this country in general, in which the interest 
and security of each and every individual are inseparably 
connected. . . . Our peculiar circumstances in this remote coun- 
try, surrounded on all sides with difficulties, and equally sub- 
ject to one common danger, which threatens our common 
overthrow, must, I think, in their effects, secure to us an 
union of interests, and, consequently, that harmony in opinion, 
so essential to the forming good, wise and wholesome laws. 

— Judge Richard Henderson: Address to the 
Legislature of Transylvania, May 23, 1775. 

THE independent spirit displayed by the 
Transylvania Company, and Hender- 
son's procedure in open defiance of the royal 
governors of both North Carolina and Vir- 
ginia, naturally aroused grave alarm through- 
out these colonies and South Carolina. "This 
in my Opinion," says Preston in a letter to 
George Washington (January 31, 1775), 
"will soon become a serious Affair, & highly 

237 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

deserves the Attention of the Government. 
For it is certain that a vast Number of People 
are preparing to go out and settle on this Pur- 
chase ; and if once they get fixed there, it will 
be next to impossible to remove them or reduce 
them to Obedience ; as they are so far from the 
Seat of Government. Indeed it may be the 
Cherokees will support them." 164 Governor 
Martin of North Carolina, already deeply dis- 
turbed in anticipation of the coming revolu- 
tionary cataclysm, thundered in what was gen- 
erally regarded as a forcible-feeble proclama- 
tion (February 19, 1775) against "Richard 
Henderson and his Confederates" in their 
"daring, unjust and unwarrantable proceed- 
ings." 165 In a letter to Dartmouth he de- 
nounces "Henderson the famous invader" and 
dubs the Transylvania Company "an infamous 
Company of land Pyrates." 

Officials who were themselves eager for land 
naturally opposed Henderson's plans. Lord 
Dunmore, who in 1774, as we have seen, was 
heavily interested in the Wabash Land Com- 
pany engineered by William Murray, took the 



TRANSYLVANIA 

ground that the Wabash purchase was valid 
under the Camden-Yorke decision. This is so 
stated in the records of the Illinois Company, 
likewise under Murray's control. But al- 
though the "Ouabache Company," of which 
Dunmore was a leading member, was initiated 
as early as May 16, 1774, the purchase of the 
territory was not formally effected until Oc- 
tober 18, 1775 — too late to benefit Dunmore, 
then deeply embroiled in the preliminaries to 
the Revolution. Under the cover of his 
agent's name, it is believed, Dunmore, with his 
"passion for land and fees," illegally entered 
tracts aggregating thousands of acres of land 
surveyed by the royal surveyors in the summer 
of 1774 for Dr. John Connolly. 166 Early in 
this same year, Patrick Henry, who, as already 
pointed out, had entered large tracts in Ken- 
tucky in violation of Virginia's treaty obliga- 
tions with the Cherokees, united with William 
Byrd 3d, John Page, Ralph Wormley, Samuel 
Overton, and William Christian, in the effort 
to purchase from the Cherokees a tract of land 
west of Donelson's line, being firmly persuaded 

239 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

of the validity of the Camden- Yorke opinion. 
Their agent, William Kenedy, considerably 
later in the year, went on a mission to the 
Cherokee towns, and upon his return reported 
that the Indians might be induced to sell. 
When it became known that Judge Henderson 
had organized the Transylvania Company and 
anticipated Patrick Henry and his associates, 
Colonel Arthur Campbell, as he himself states, 
applied to several of the partners of the 
Transylvania Company on behalf of Patrick 
Henry, requesting that Henry be taken in as 
a partner. 167 It was afterward stated, as com- 
monly understood among the Transylvania 
proprietors, that both Patrick Henry and 
Thomas Jefferson desired to become members 
of the company; but that Colonel Richard 
Henderson was instrumental in preventing 
their admission "lest they should supplant the 
Colonel [Henderson] as the guiding spirit of 
the company." 168 

Fully informed by Preston's elaborate com- 
munication on the gravity of the situation, 
Dunmore acted energetically, though tardily, 

240 




By his Excellency the Right Honourable JOHN Earl of DUN MO RE, his Majclrys 
Lieutenant and Governor General of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, and Vice 
Admiral of the fame. ♦ 

A PROCLAMATION. 

Virginia, to wit. 

WH E R E A S his Majesty did, at the Rcqnett of the Affcmbly of this Colony, permit the Weflem Boundary thereof w be ctten.Iel . 
the fame has been ran and ascertained by Colonel Dcnel/in, and other Surveyors, deputed for the Purpofe ; and whereas hit Majerty 
bath, for the greater Convenience of, and the preventing of Litigation and Difputes among, futh Perfons as shall be inclined to fettle upon any 
of his vacant Lands, ordered that all that Tract of Land included withiu the aforesaid Boundary, and all other vacant Lands within this Colony, 
be furveyed in Diltricts, and laid out in Lota of from one Hundred to one Thou-and Acres, and as (aft as the faid Survey} mail be compleaeed by 
the Surveyors, duly authorized, an.! the Surveys thereof returned, that the Lands, {v furveyed and allotcd, be put up Co pobhc Sale, at futh 
Time and Place as (nail be appointed by public Notice t and that tuchiheft Bidder for fnch Lots and Parcels of Land, ttfuch Sales, be the Pur- 
chafer thereof, and be entitled to aCrant in Fee Simple of the Land fo purchalcd as aforeliid, by Letters Patent under the ^eae Seal of the Colony. 
fubjaS to no Conditions or Refervalions whatever, other than the Payment of the anuual Quit-Rent of one half Penny Sterling per Acre, and alio 
of all Mines of Gold, Stiver, and precious Stonesi And whereas Advice his been received, that one KrcWo' Hndtifm, and other disorderly Perfon., 
Lis Aflbciatos, under Pretence of a Pus-chafe made from the /avri.nu, contrary to the aforefaid Orders and Regulations of his Majctly, do fee up a 
Claim to the Lands of the Crown within the Limits of this Colony; I have thought St. therefore, to iITue this my Proclsanacion, (Inclly ch.r/.ng 
Vail Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs, and other Officers, civil and military, to life their utmoft Endeavours to prevent the ttsrwarrarstable and Begad 
Designs of Che Hid Ri*J,,fn and his Abettors : and if the laid flns*r/m, or others concerned with him, Hull take PcdBstaon of, or occupy any 
'Lands within the Limits of his Majesty's Government of lVr„mi, merely under any Purchafe, or pretended Purchafe, made from As/,a«. withou. 
jany omer Title, that he or chey be required, in h,s MajetV, Name, forthwith to derassv, and rel.no.uiHi the HotTellion fo sjnjsjllly obt.ined. snd 
'in Cafe of Refusal and of violent dctainiug fuch PoQciEon, chat he or chey be immediately hard and impr.foned in aha- Manner ch: Law. In i.-l. 
Cafes direct. 

I r £ N mJ <r m, /fcaJ, W lie Sear ./ tbt Cfc*,. fiir :,f Dr, •/ March, at ih, ijri Tear ./ oil JttfafrV****. 

DUNMOKE. 
GOD fave the KIN G. 



LORD DUNMORE'S PROCLAMATION AGAINST THE 
TRANSYLVANIA COMPANY 

From an unique original in the Public Record Office, London 



TRANSYLVANIA 

to prevent the execution of Henderson's de- 
signs. On March 21st Dunmore sent flying 
through the back country a proclamation, de- 
manding the immediate relinquishment of the 
territory by "one Richard Henderson and 
other disorderly persons, his associates," and 
"in case of refusal, and of violently detaining 
such possession, that he or they be immediately 
fined and imprisoned." 169 This proclamation, 
says a peppery old chronicler, may well rank 
with the one excepting those arch traitors 
and rebels, Samuel Adams and John Han- 
cock, from the mercy of the British mon- 
arch. In view of Dunmore's confidence in the 
validity of the Camden- Yorke decision, it is 
noteworthy that no mention of the royal proc- 
lamation of 1763 occurs in his broadside; and 
that he bases his objection to the Transyl- 
vania purchase upon the king's instructions 
that all vacant lands "within this colony" 
be laid off in tracts, from one hundred to one 
thousand acres in extent, and sold at public 
auction. This proclamation which was en- 
closed, oddly enough, in a letter of official in- 

241 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

structions to Preston warning him not to sur- 
vey any lands "beyond the line run by Colonel 
Donaldson," proved utterly ineffective. At 
the same time, Dunmore despatched a pointed 
letter to Oconostota, Atta-kulla-kulla, Judge's 
Friend, and other Cherokee chieftains, noti- 
fying them that the sale of the great tract of 
land below the Kentucky was illegal and 
threatening them with the king's displeasure 
if they did not repudiate the sale. 170 

News of the plans which Henderson had 
already matured for establishing an independ- 
ent colony in the trans-Alleghany wilderness, 
now ran like wild-fire through Virginia. In 
a letter to George Washington (April 9, 
1775), Preston ruefully says: "Henderson I 
hear has made the Purchase & got a Convey- 
ance of the great and Valluable Country below 
the Kentucky from the Cherokees. He and 
about 300 adventurers are gone out to take 
Possession, who it is said intends to set up an 
independent Government & form a Code of 
Laws for themselves. How this may be I 
cant say, but I am affraid the steps taken by 

242 



TRANSYLVANIA 

the Government have been too late. Before 
the Purchase was made had the Governor in- 
terfered it is believed the Indians would not 
have sold." m 

Meanwhile Judge Henderson, with strenu- 
ous energy, had begun to erect a large stock- 
aded fort according to plans of his own. Cap- 
tain James Harrod with forty-two men was 
stationed at the settlement he had made the 
preceding year, having. arrived there before the 
McAfees started back to Virginia; and there 
were small groups of settlers at Boiling 
Spring, six miles southeast of Harrod's settle- 
ment, and at St. Asaph's, a mile west of the 
present Stanford. A representative govern- 
ment for Transylvania was then planned. 
When the frank and gallant Floyd arrived at 
the Transylvania Fort on May 3d, he "ex- 
pressed great satisfaction," says Judge Hen- 
derson, "on being informed of the plan we pro- 
posed for Legislation & sayd he must most 
heartily concur in that & every other measure 
we should adopt for the well Govern 8 or good of 
the Community in Gen 1 ." In reference to a 

243 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

conversation with Captain James Harrod and 
Colonel Thomas Slaughter of Virginia, Hen- 
derson notes in his diary (May 8th) : ."Our 
plan of Legislation, the evils pointed out — the 
remedies to be applyed &c &c &c were Ac- 
ceeded to without Hesitation. The plann was 
plain & Simple — 'twas nothing novel in its es- 
sence a thousand years ago it was in use, and 
found by every year's experience since to be un- 
exceptionable. We were in four distinct set- 
tlem ts . Members or delegates from every 
place by free choice of Individuals they first 
having entered into writings solemnly bind- 
ing themselves to obey and carry into Execu- 
tion Such Laws as representatives should from 
time to time make, Concurred with, by A Ma- 
jority of the Proprietors present in the Coun- 
try." 

In reply to inquiries of the settlers, Judge 
Henderson gave as his reason for this assem- 
bling of a Transylvania Legislature that "all 
power was derived from the people." Six 
days before the prophetic arrival of the news 
of the Battle of Lexington and eight days be- 

244 



TRANSYLVANIA 

fore the revolutionary committee of Mecklen- 
burg County, North Carolina, promulgated 
their memorable Resolves establishing laws for 
an independent government, the pioneers as- 
sembled on the green beneath the mighty plane- 
tree at the Transylvania Fort. In his wise 
and statesmanlike address to this picturesque 
convention of free Americans (May 23, 1775) , 
an address which Felix Walker described as 
being "considered equal to any of like kind 
ever delivered to any deliberate body in that 
day and time," Judge Henderson used these 
memorable words : 

You, perhaps, are fixing the palladium, or 
placing the first corner stone of an edifice, the 
height and magnificence of whose superstruc- 
ture . . . can only become great in propor- 
tion to the excellence of its foundation. . . . 
If any doubt remain amongst you with respect 
to the force or efficiency of whatever laws you 
now, or hereafter make, be pleased to consider 
that all power is originally in the people; make 
it their interest, therefore, by impartial and 
beneficent laws, and you may be sure of their 
inclination to see them enforced. 

245 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

An early writer, in speaking of the full- 
blooded democracy of these "advanced" senti- 
ments, quaintly comments : "If Jeremy Ben- 
tham had been in existence of manhood, he 
would have sent his compliments to the Presi- 
dent of Transylvania." This, the first repre- 
sentative body of American freemen which ever 
convened west of the Alleghanies, is surely 
the most unique colonial government ever set 
up on this continent. The proceedings of this 
backwoods legislature — the democratic leader- 
ship of the principal proprietor; the prudence 
exhibited in the laws for protecting game, 
breeding horses, etc.; the tolerance shown in 
the granting of full religious liberty — all dis- 
play the acumen and practical wisdom of these 
pioneer law-givers. As the result of Hender- 
son's tactfulness, the proprietary form of gov- 
ernment, thoroughly democratized in tone, 
was complacently accepted by the backwoods- 
men. From one who, though still under royal 
rule, vehemently asserted that the source of all 
political power was the people, and that "laws 

246 



TRANSYLVANIA 

derive force and efficiency from our mutual 
consent," Western democracy thus born in the 
wilderness was "taking its first political lesson." 
In their answer to Henderson's assertion of 
freedom from alien authority the pioneers un- 
hesitatingly declared: "That we have an ab- 
solute right, as a political body, without giving 
umbrage to Great Britain, or any of the colo- 
nies, to form rules for the government of our 
little society, cannot be doubted by any sensi- 
ble mind and being without the jurisdiction 
of, and not answerable to any of his Majesty's 
courts, the constituting tribunals of justice 
shall be a matter of our first contempla- 
tion. . . ." In the establishment of a consti- 
tution for the new colony, Henderson with 
paternalistic wisdom induced the people to 
adopt a legal code based on the laws of Eng- 
land. Out of a sense of self -protection he re- 
served for the proprietors only one preroga- 
tive not granted them by the people, the right 
of veto. He clearly realized that if this power 
were given up, the delegates to any convention 

247 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

that might be held after the first would be able 
to assume the claims and rights of the proprie- 
tors. 

A land-office was formally opened, deeds 
were issued, and a store was established which 
supplied the colonists with powder, lead, salt, 
osnaburgs, blankets, and other chief necessities 
of pioneer existence. Writing to his brother 
Jonathan from Leestown, the bold young 
George Rogers Clark, soon to plot the down- 
fall of Transylvania, enthusiastically says 
(July 6, 1775) : "A richer and more Beauti- 
full Cuntry than this I believe has never been 
seen in America yet. Co 1 . Henderson is hear 
and Claims all y e Country below Kentucke. 
If his Claim Should be good, land may be got 
Reasonable Enough and as good as any in y e 
World." 172 Those who settled on the south 
side of Kentucky River acknowledged the 
validity of the Transylvania purchase; and 
Clark in his Memoir says : "the Proprietors at 
first took great pains to Ingratiate themselves 
in the fav r . of the people." , 

In regard to the designs of Lord Dunmore, 
248 



TRANSYLVANIA 

who, as noted above, had illegally entered the 
Connolly grant on the Ohio and sought to out- 
law Henderson, and of Colonel William Byrd 
3d, who, after being balked in Patrick Henry's 
plan to anticipate the Transylvania Company 
in effecting a purchase from the Cherokees, 
was supposed to have tried to persuade the 
Cherokees to repudiate the "Great Treaty," 
Henderson defiantly says: "Whether Lord 
Dunmore and Colonel Byrd have interfered 
with the Indians or not, Richard Henderson is 
equally ignorant and indifferent. The utmost 
result of their efforts can only serve to convince 
them of the futility of their schemes and possi- 
bly frighten some few faint-hearted persons, 
naturally prone to reverence great names and 
fancy everything must shrink at the magic of 
a splendid title." 173 

Prompted by Henderson's desire to petition 
the Continental Congress then in session for 
recognition as the fourteenth colony, the 
Transylvania legislature met again on the first 
Thursday in September and elected Richard 
Henderson and John Williams, among others, 

249 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

as delegates to the gathering at Philadelphia. 174 
Shortly afterward the Proprietors of Transyl- 
vania held a meeting at Oxford, North Caro- 
lina ( September 25, 1775) , elected Williams as 
the agent of the colony, and directed him to 
proceed to Boonesborough there to reside until 
April, 1776. James Hogg, of Hillsborough, 
chosen as Delegate to represent the Colony in 
the Continental Congress, was despatched to 
Philadelphia, bearing with him an elaborate 
memorial prepared by the President, Judge 
Henderson, petitioning the Congress "to take 
the infant Colony of Transylvania into their 
protection." 175 

Almost immediately upon his arrival in 
Philadelphia, James Hogg was presented to 
"the famous Samuel and John Adams." The 
latter warned Hogg, in view of the efforts then 
making toward reconciliation between the colo- 
nies and the king, that "the taking under our 
protection a body of people who have acted in 
defiance of the King's proclamation, will be 
looked on as a confirmation of that independent 
spirit with which we are daily reproached." 

250 



TRANSYLVANIA 

Jefferson said that if his advice were followed, 
all the use the Virginians should make of their 
charter would be "to prevent any arbitrary 
or oppressive government to be established 
within the boundaries of it" ; and that it was his 
wish "to see a free government established at 
the back of theirs [Virginia's] properly united 
with them." He would not consent, however, 
that Congress should acknowledge the colony 
of Transylvania, until it had the approbation 
of the Virginia Convention. The quit-rents 
imposed by the company were denounced in 
Congress as a mark of vassalage; and many 
advised a* law against the employment of ne- 
groes in the colony. "They even threatened 
us with their opposition," says Hogg, with 
precise veracity, "if we do not act upon liberal 
principles when we have it so much in our 
power to render ourselves immortal.' 



" 176 



251 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE REPULSE OF THE RED MEN 

To this short war may be properly attributed all the kind 
feelings and fidelity to treaty stipulations manifested by the 
Cherdkees ever afterwards. General Rutherford instilled into 
the Indians so great a fear of the whites, that never afterwards 
were they disposed to engage in any cruelty, or destroy any 
of the property of our frontier men. 

— David L. Swain: The Indian War of 1776. 

DURING the summer of 1775 the pro- 
prietors of Transylvania were con- 
fronted with two stupendous tasks — that of 
winning the favor and support of the frontiers- 
men and that of rallying the rapidly dwindling 
forces in Kentucky in defense of the settle- 
ments. Recognizing the difficulty of includ- 
ing Martin's Station, because of its remote- 
ness, with the government provided for r Tran- 
sylvania, Judge Henderson prepared a plan 
of government for the group of settlers located 
in Powell's Valley. In a letter to Martin 
(July 30th), in regard to the recent energetic 

252 



THE REPULSE OF THE RED MEN 

defense of the settlers at that point against 
the Indians, Henderson says : "Your spirited 
conduct gives me much pleasure. ., . . Keep 
your men in heart if possible, now is our time, 
the Indians must not drive us." The gloom 
which had been occasioned by the almost com- 
plete desertion of the stations at Harrodsburg, 
the Boiling Spring, and the Transylvania 
Fort or Boonesborough was dispelled with the 
return of Boone, accompanied by some thirty 
persons, on September 8th, and of Richard 
Callaway with a considerable party on Sep- 
tember 26th. The crisis was now passed; and 
the colony began for the first time really to 
flourish. The people on the south side of the 
Kentucky River universally accepted proprie- 
tary rule for the time being. But the seeds 
of dissension were soon to be sown among 
those who settled north of the river, as well 
as among men of the stamp of James Harrod, 
who, having preceded Henderson in the estab- 
lishment of a settlement in Kentucky, natu- 
rally resented holding lands under the Tran- 
sylvania Company. 

253 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

The great liberality of this organization to- 
ward incoming settlers had resulted in immense 
quantities of land being taken up through their 
land-office. 177 The ranging, hunting, and 
road-building were paid for by the company; 
and the entire settlement was furnished with 
powder, lead, and supplies, wholly on credit, 
for this and the succeeding year. "Five hun- 
dred and sixty thousand acres of land are now 
entered," reports Floyd on December 1st, "and 
most of the people waiting to have it run 
out." 178 After Dunmore, having lost his hold 
upon the situation, escaped to the protection of 
a British vessel, the Fowey, Colonel Preston 
continued to prevent surveys for officers' 
grants within the Transylvania territory; and 
his original hostility to Judge Henderson gave 
place to friendship and support. 

On December 1st, Colonel John Williams, 
resident agent of the Transylvania Company, 
announced at Boonesborough the long-contem- 
plated and widely advertised advance in price 
of the lands, from twenty to fifty shillings per 
hundred acres, with surveying fees of four dol- 

254 



THE REPULSE OF THE RED MEN 

lars for tracts not exceeding six hundred and 
forty acres. 179 At a meeting of the Transyl- 
vania legislature, convened on December 21st, 
John Floyd was chosen surveyor general of 
the colony, Nathaniel Henderson was placed 
in charge of the Entering Office, and Rich- 
ard Harrison given the post of secretary. At 
this meeting of the legislature, the first open 
expression of discontent was voiced in the 
"Harrodsburg Remonstrance," questioning 
the validity of the proprietors' title, and pro- 
testing against any increase in the price of 
lands, as well as the taking up by the proprie- 
tors and a few other gentlemen of the best 
lands at the Falls of the Ohio. Every effort 
was made to accommodate the remonstrants, 
who were led by Abraham Hite. Office fees 
were abolished, and the payment of quit -rents 
was deferred until January 1, 1780. Despite 
these efforts at accommodation, grave doubts 
were implanted by this Harrodsburg Remon- 
strance in the minds of the people; and much 
discussion and discontent ensued. 

By midsummer, 1775, George Rogers Clark, 
255 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

a remarkably enterprising and independent 
young pioneer, was "engrossing all the land 
he could" in Kentucky. Upon his return to 
Virginia, as he relates, he "found there was 
various oppinions Respecting Hender'son 
claim, many thought it go[o]d, others douted 
whether or not Virginia coud with propriety 
have any pretentions to the cuntrey." 180 
Jefferson displayed a liberal attitude toward 
the claims of the Transylvania proprietors ; and 
Patrick Henry openly stated that, in his opin- 
ion, "their claim would stand good." But 
many others, of the stamp of George Mason 
and George Washington, vigorously asserted 
Virginia's charter rights over the Western ter- 
ritory. 181 This sharp difference of opinion ex- 
cited in Clark's mind the bold conception of 
seizing the leadership of the country and mak- 
ing terms with Virginia under threat of seces- 
sion. 

With the design of effecting some final dis- 
position in regard to the title of the Transyl- 
vania proprietors, Judge Henderson and 
Colonel Williams set off from Boonesborough 

256 



THE REPULSE OF THE RED MEN 

about May 1st, intending first to appeal to 
the Virginia Convention and ultimately to lay 
their claims before the Continental Congress. 
"Since they have gone," reports Floyd to Pres- 
ton, "I am told most of the men about Har- 
rodsburg have re-assumed their former reso- 
lution of not complying with any of the office 
rules whatever. Jack Jones, it is said, is at 
the head of the party & flourishes away prodi- 
giously." 182 John Gabriel Jones was the mere 
figurehead in the revolt. The real leader, the 
brains of the conspiracy, was the unscrupu- 
lous George Rogers Clark. At Clark's in- 
stance, an eight-day election was held at Har- 
rodsburg (June 7-15), at which time a peti- 
tion to the Virginia Convention was drawn 
up ; 183 and Clark and Jones were elected dele- 
gates. Clark's plan, the scheme of a bold 
revolutionist, was to treat with Virginia for 
terms; and if they were not satisfactory, to 
revolt and, as he says, "Establish an Inde- 
pendent Government" . . . "giving away 
great part of the Lands and disposing of the 
Remainder." In a second petition, prepared 

257 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

by the self-styled "Committee of West Fin- 
castle" (June 20th), it was alleged that "if 
these pretended Proprietors have leave to con- 
tinue to act in their arbitrary manner out the 
controul of this colony [Virginia] the end must 
be evident to every well wisher to American 
Liberty." 184 

The contest which now ensued between 
Richard Henderson and George Rogers Clark, 
waged upon the floor of the convention and 
behind the scenes, resulted in a conclusion that 
was inevitable at a moment in American his- 
tory marked by the signing of the Declaration 
of Independence. Virginia, under the leader- 
ship of her new governor, Patrick Henry, put 
an end to the proprietary rule of the Tran- 
sylvania Company. On December 7th such 
part of Transylvania as lay within the char- 
tered limits of Virginia was erected by the 
legislature of that colony into the County of 
Kentucky. The proprietary form of govern- 
ment with its "marks of vassalage," although 
liberalized with the spirit of democracy, was 
unendurable to the independent and lawless 

258 



THE REPULSE OF THE RED MEN 

pioneers, already intoxicated with the spirit 
of freedom swept in on the first fresh breezes 
of the Revolution. Yet it is not to be doubted 
that the Transylvania Company, through the 
courage and moral influence of its leaders, 
made a permanent contribution to the colo- 
nization of the West, which, in providential 
timeliness and effective execution, is without 
parallel in our early annals. 185 

While events were thus shaping themselves 
in Kentucky — events which made possible 
Clark's spectacular and meteoric campaign in 
the Northwest and ultimately resulted in the 
establishment of the Mississippi instead of the 
Alleghanies as the western boundary of the 
Confederation — the pioneers of Watauga were 
sagaciously laying strong the foundations of 
permanent occupation. In September, 1775, 
North Carolina, through her Provincial Con- 
gress, provided for the appointment in each 
district of a Committee of Safety, to consist 
of a president and twelve other members. 
Following the lead thus set, the Watauga set- 
tlers assumed for their country the name of 

259 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

"Washington District" ; and proceeded by un- 
animous vote of the people to choose a com- 
mittee of thirteen, which included James Rob- 
ertson and John Sevier. This district was or- 
ganized "shortly after October, 1775," accord- 
ing to Felix Walker; and the first step taken 
after the election of the committee was the 
organization of a court, consisting of five mem- 
bers. Felix Walker was elected clerk of the 
court thus organized, and held the position for 
about four years. James Robertson and John 
Sevier, it is believed, were also members of this 
court. To James Robertson who, with the 
assistance of his colleagues, devised this primi- 
tive type of frontier rule — a true commission 
form of government, oh the "Watauga Plan" 
— is justly due distinctive recognition for this 
notable inauguration of the independent de- 
mocracy of the Old Southwest. The Wa- 
tauga settlement was animated by a spirit 
of deepest loyalty to the American cause. In 
a memorable petition these hardy settlers re- 
quested the Provincial Council of North Caro- 
lina not to regard them as a "lawless mob," 

260 



THE REPULSE OF THE RED MEN 

but to "annex" them to North Carolina with- 
out delay. "This committee (willing to be- 
come a party in the present unhappy contest) ", 
states the petition, which must have been 
drafted about July 15, 1776, "resolved (which 
is now on our records) , to adhere strictly to the 
rules and orders of the Continental Congress, 
and in open committee acknowledged them- 
selves indebted to the united colonies their full 
proportion of the Continental expense." 18C 

While these disputes as to the government 
of the new communities were in progress an 
additional danger threatened the pioneers. 
For a whole year the British had been plying 
the various Indian tribes from the lakes to 
the gulf with presents, supplies, and ammuni- 
tion. In the Northwest bounties had actually 
been offered for American scalps. During 
the spring of 1776 plans were concerted, chiefly 
through Stuart and Cameron, British agents 
among the Southern Indians, for uniting the 
Loyalists and the Indians in a crushing attack 
upon the Tennessee settlements and the back 
country of North Carolina. Already the 

261 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

frontier of South Carolina had passed through 
the horrors of Indian uprising; and warning 
of the approaching invasion had been merci- 
fully sent the Holston settlers by Atta-kulla- 
kulla's niece, Nancy Ward, the "Pocahontas of 
the West" — doubtless through the influence of 
her daughter, who loved Joseph Martin. The 
settlers, flocking for refuge into their small 
stockaded forts, waited in readiness for the 
dreaded Indian attacks, which were made by 
two forces totaling some seven hundred war- 
riors. 

On July 20th, warned in advance of the ap- 
proach of the Indians, the borderers, one hun- 
dred and seventy in all, marched in two col- 
umns from the rude breastwork, hastily thrown 
up at Eaton's Station, to meet the Indians, 
double their own number, led by The Drag- 
ging Canoe. The scouts surprised one party 
of Indians, hastily poured in a deadly fire, 
and rushed upon them with such impetuous 
fury that they fled precipitately. Withdraw- 
ing now toward their breastwork, in anticipa- 
tion of encountering there a larger force, the 

262 



THE REPULSE OF THE RED MEN 

backwoodsmen suddenly found themselves at- 
tacked in their rear and in grave danger of 
being surrounded. Extending their own line 
under the direction of Captain James Shelby, 
the frontiersmen steadily met the bold attack 
of the Indians, who, mistaking the rapid ex- 
tension of the line for a movement to retreat, 
incautiously made a headlong onslaught upon 
the whites, giving the war-whoop and shout- 
ing: "The Unakas are running!" In the en- 
suing hot conflict at close quarters, in some 
places hand to hand, the Indians were utterly 
routed — The Dragging Canoe being shot 
down, many warriors wounded, and thirteen 
left dead upon the field. 

On the day after Thompson, Cocke, Shelby, 
Campbell, Madison, and their men were thus 
winning the battle of the Long Island "flats," 
Robertson, Sevier, and their little band of 
forty-two men were engaged in repelling an 
attack, begun at sunrise, upon the Watauga 
fort near the Sycamore Shoals. This attack, 
which was led by Old Abraham, proved abor- 
tive; but as the result of the loose investment 

263 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

of the log fortress, maintained by the Indians 
for several weeks, a few rash venturers from 
the fort were killed or captured, notably a 
young boy who was earned to one of the Indian 
towns and burned at the stake, and the wife 
of the pioneer settler, William Been, who 
was rescued from a like fate by the interces- 
sion of the humane and noble Nancy Ward. 
It was during this siege, according to con- 
stant tradition, that a frontier lass, active and 
graceful as a young doe, was pursued to the 
very stockade by the fleet-footed savages. 
Seeing her plight, an athletic young officer 
mounted the stockade at a single leap, shot 
down the foremost of the pursuers, and lean- 
ing over, seized the maiden by the hands and 
lifted her over the stockade. The maiden who 
sank breathless into the arms of the young 
officer, John Sevier, was "Bonnie Kate Sher- 
rill" — who, after the fashion of true romance, 
afterward became the wife of her gallant res- 
cuer. 

While the Tennessee settlements were un- 
dergoing the trials of siege and attack, the 

264 



THE REPULSE OF THE RED MEN 

settlers on the frontiers of Rowan were fall- 
ing beneath the tomahawk of the merciless 
savage. In the first and second weeks of July 
large forces of Indians penetrated to the out- 
lying settlements ; and in two days thirty-seven 
persons were killed along the Catawba River. 
On July 13th, the bluff old soldier of Rowan, 
General Griffith Rutherford, reported to the 
council of North Carolina that "three of our 
Captains are killed and one wounded"; and 
that he was setting out that day with what 
men he could muster to relieve Colonel Mc- 
Dowell, ten men, and one hundred and twenty 
women and children, who were "besieged in 
some kind of a fort." Aroused to extraordi- 
nary exertions by these daring and deadly 
blows, the governments of North Carolina, 
South Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia insti- 
tuted a joint campaign against the Cherokees. 
It was believed that, by delivering a series of 
crushing blows to the Indians and so conclu- 
sively demonstrating the overwhelming supe- 
riority of the whites, the state governments 
in the Old Southwest would convince the sav- 

265 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

ages of the futility of any attempt ever again 
to oppose them seriously. 

Within less than a week after sending his 
despatches to the council Rutherford set forth 
at the head of twenty-five hundred men to 
protect the frontiers of North Carolina and to 
overwhelm the foe. Leading the South Caro- 
lina army of more than eighteen hundred men, 
Colonel Andrew Williamson directed his at- 
tack against the lower Cherokee towns; while 
Colonel Samuel Jack led two hundred Georg- 
ians against the Indian towns at the heads of 
the Chattahoochee and Tugaloo Rivers. As- 
sembling a force of some sixteen hundred Vir- 
ginians, Colonel William Christian rendez- 
voused in August at the Long Island of 
Holston, where his force was strengthened by 
between three and four hundred North Caro- 
linians under Colonels Joseph Williams and 
Love, and Major Winston. The various ex- 
peditions met with little effective opposition 
on the whole, succeeding everywhere in their 
design of utterly laying waste the towns of 
the Cherokees. One serious engagement oc- 

26'6 



THE REPULSE OF THE RED MEN 

curred when the Indians resolutely challenged 
Rutherford's advance at the gap of the Nan- 
tahala Mountains. Indian women — heroic 
Amazons disguised in war-paint and armed 
with the weapons of warriors and the cour- 
age of despair — fought side by side with the 
Indian braves in the effort to arrest Ruther- 
ford's progress and compass his defeat. More 
than forty frontiersmen fell beneath the deadly 
shots of this truly Spartan band before the 
final repulse of the savages. 

The most picturesque figures in this over- 
whelmingly successful campaign were the bluff 
old Indian-fighter, Griffith Rutherford, wear- 
ing "a tow hunting shirt, dyed black, and 
trimmed with white fringe" as a uniform ; Cap- 
tain Benjamin Cleveland, a rude paladin of 
gigantic size, strength, and courage; Lieuten- 
ant William Lenoir (Le Noir), the gallant 
and recklessly brave French Huguenot, later 
to win a general's rank in the Revolution; 
and that militant man of God, the Reverend 
James Hall, graduate of Nassau Hall, stal- 
wart and manly, who carried a rifle on his 

267 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

shoulder and, in the intervals between the 
slaughter of the savages, preached the gospel 
to the vindictive and bloodthirsty backwoods- 
men. Such preaching was sorely needed on 
that campaign — when the whites, maddened 
beyond the bounds of self-control by the re- 
cent ghastly murders, gladly availed them- 
selves of the South Carolina bounty offered 
for fresh Indian scalps. At times they ex- 
ultantly displayed the reeking patches of hair 
above the gates of their stockades; at others, 
with many a bloody oath, they compelled their 
commanders either to sell the Indian captives 
into slavery or else see them scalped on the 
spot. Twenty years afterward Benjamin 
Hawkins relates that among Indian refugees 
in extreme western Georgia the children had 
been so terrorized by their parents' recitals of 
the atrocities of the enraged borderers in the 
campaign of 1776, that they ran screaming 
from the face of a white man. 



268 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE COLONIZATION OF THE CUMBERLAND 

March 31, 1780. Set out this day, and after running some 
distance, met with Col. Richard Henderson, who was running 
the line between Virginia and North Carolina. At this meet- 
ing we were much rejoiced. He gave us every information 
we wished, and further informed us that he had purchased 
a quantity of corn in Kentucky, to be shipped at the Falls 
of Ohio, for the use of the Cumberland settlement. We are 
now without bread, and are compelled to hunt the buffalo 
to preserve life. 

— Johk Donelson: Journal of a Voyage, in- 
tended by God's permission, in the good boat 
Adventure, from Fort Patrick Henry, on Hol- 
ston River, to the French Salt Springs on 
Cumberland River. 

TO the settlements in Tennessee and Ken- 
tucky, which they had seized and occu- 
pied, the pioneers held on with a tenacious 
grip which never relaxed. From these strong- 
holds, won through sullen and desperate 
strokes, they pushed deeper into the wilder- 
ness, once again to meet with undimmed cour- 
age the bitter onslaughts of their resentful foes. 

269 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

The crushing of the Cherokees in 1776 relieved 
the pressure upon the Tennessee settlers, en- 
abling them to strengthen their hold and pre- 
pare effectively for future eventualities; the 
possession of the gateway to Kentucky kept 
free the passage for Western settlement; 
Watauga and its defenders continued to offer 
a formidable barrier to British invasion of the 
East from Kentucky and the Northwest dur- 
ing the Revolution; while these Tennessee 
frontiersmen were destined soon to set forth 
again to invade a new wilderness and at fright- 
ful cost to colonize the Cumberland. 

The little chain of stockades along the far- 
flung frontier of Kentucky was tenaciously 
held by the bravest of the race, grimly re- 
solved that this chain must not break. The 
Revolution precipitated against this chain 
wave after wave of formidable Indian foes 
from the Northwest under British leadership. 
At the very time when Griffith Rutherford set 
out for the relief of McDowell's Fort, a 
marauding Indian band captured by stealth 
near the Transylvania Fort, known as Boone's 

270 



THE COLONIZATION OF CUMBERLAND 

Fort (Boonesborough), Elizabeth and Fran- 
ces Callaway, and Jemima Boone, the daugh- 
ters of Richard Callaway and Daniel Boone, 
and rapidly marched them away toward the 
Shawanoe towns on the Ohio. A relief party, 
in two divisions, headed respectively by the 
young girls' fathers, and composed among 
others of the lovers of the three girls, Sam- 
uel Henderson, John Holder, and Flanders 
Callaway, pursued them with almost incredi- 
ble swiftness. Guided by broken twigs and 
bits of cloth surreptitiously dropped by Eliza- 
beth Callaway, they finally overtook the un- 
suspecting savages, killed two of them, and 
rescued the three maidens unharmed. This 
romantic episode — which gave Fenimore 
Cooper the theme for the most memorable 
scene in one of his Leatherstocking Tales — 
had an even more romantic sequel in the sub- 
sequent marriage of the three pairs of lovers. 

This bold foray, so shrewdly executed and 
even more sagaciously foiled, was a true pre- 
cursor of the dread happenings of the coming 
years. Soon the red men were lurking in the 

271 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

neighborhood of the stations; and relief was 
felt when the Transylvania Fort, the great 
stockade planned by Judge Henderson, was 
completed by the pioneers (July, 1776). 
Glad tidings arrived only a few days later 
when the Declaration of Independence, read 
aloud from the Virginia Gazette, was greeted 
with wild huzzas by the patriotic backwoods- 
men. During the ensuing months occasional 
invasions were made by savage bands; but it 
was not until April 24, 1777, that Hender- 
son's "big fort" received its first attack, being 
invested by a company of some seventy-five 
savages. The twenty-two riflemen in the fort 
drove off the painted warriors, but not before 
Michael Stoner, Daniel Boone, and several 
others were severely wounded. As he lay 
helpless upon the ground, his ankle shattered 
by a bullet, Boone was lifted by Simon Ken- 
ton and borne away upon his shoulders to the 
haven of the stockade amid a veritable shower 
of balls. The stoical and taciturn Boone 
clasped Kenton's hand and gave him the ac- 
colade of the wilderness in the brief but heart- 

272 



THE COLONIZATION OF CUMBERLAND 

felt utterance; "You are a fine fellow." On 
July 4th of this same year the fort was again 
subjected to siege, when two hundred gaudily 
painted savages surrounded it for two days. 
But owing to the vigilance and superb mark- 
manship of the defenders, as well as to the lack 
of cannon by the besieging force, the Indians 
reluctantly abandoned the siege, after leaving 
a number dead upon the field. Soon after- 
ward the arrival of two strong bodies of prime 
riflemen, who had been hastily summoned from 
the frontiers of North Carolina and Virginia, 
once again made firm the bulwark of white 
supremacy in the West. 

Kentucky's terrible year, 1778, opened with 
a severe disaster to the white settlers — when 
Boone with thirty men, while engaged in mak- 
ing salt at the "Lower Salt Spring," was cap- 
tured in February by more than a hundred 
Indians, sent by Governor Hamilton of De- 
troit to drive the white settlers from "Ken- 
tucke." Boone remained in captivity until 
early summer, when, learning that his Indian 
captors were planning an attack in force upon 

273 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

the Transylvania Fort, he succeeded in effect- 
ing his escape. After a break-neck journey 
of one hundred and sixty miles, during which 
he ate but one meal, Boone finally arrived at 
the big fort on June 20th. The settlers were 
thus given ample time for preparation, as the 
long siege did not begin until September 7th. 
The fort was invested by a powerful force 
flying the English flag — four hundred and 
forty-four savages gaudy in the vermilion and 
ochre of their war-paint, and eleven French- 
men, the whole being commanded by the 
French-Canadian, Captain Dagniaux de Quin- 
dre, and the great Indian Chief, Black-fish, 
who had adopted Boone as a son. 187 In the 
effort to gain his end de Quindre resorted to 
a dishonorable stratagem, by which he hoped 
to outwit the settlers and capture the fort with 
but slight loss. "They formed a scheme to 
deceive us," says Boone, "declaring it was their 
orders, from Governor Hamilton, to take us 
captives, and not to destroy us; but if nine 
of us would come out and treat with them, they 
would immediately withdraw their forces from 

274 



THE COLONIZATION OF CUMBERLAND 

our walls, and return home peacably." Trans- 
parent as the stratagem was, Boone incau- 
tiously agreed to a conference with the enemy ; 
Callaway alone took the precaution to guard 
against Indian duplicity. After a long talk, 
the Indians proposed to Boone, Callaway, and 
the seven or eight pioneers who accompanied 
them that they shake hands in token of peace 
and friendship. As picturesquely described 
by Daniel Trabue : 

The Indians sayed two Indians must shake 
hands with one white man to make a Double 
or sure peace at this time the Indians had 
hold of the white men's hands and held them. 
Col. Calloway objected to this but the other 
Indians laid hold or tryed to lay hold of the 
other hand but Colonel Calloway was the first 
that jerked away from them but the Indians 
seized the men two Indians holt of one man or 
it was mostly the case and did their best to 
hold them but while the man and Indians was 
a scuffling the men from the Fort agreeable 
to Col. Calloway's order fired on them they 
had a dreadful skuffel but our men all got in 
the fort safe and the fire continued on both 
sides. 188 

275 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

During the siege Callaway, the leader of the 
pioneers, made a wooden cannon wrapped with 
wagon tires, which on being fired at a group 
of Indians "made them scamper perdidiously." 
The secret effort of the Indians to tunnel a 
way underground into the fort, being discov- 
ered by the defenders, was frustrated by a 
countermine. Unable to outwit, outfight, or 
outmaneuver the resourceful Callaway, de 
Quindre finally withdrew on September 16th, 
closing the longest and severest attack that any 
of the fortified stations of Kentucky had ever 
been called upon to withstand. 

The successful defense of the Transylvania 
Fort, made by these indomitable backwoods- 
men who were lost sight of by the Continental 
Congress and left to fight alone their battles 
in the forests, was of national significance in 
its results. Had the Transylvania Fort fallen, 
the northern Indians in overwhelming num- 
bers, directed by Hamilton and led by British 
officers, might well have swept Kentucky free 
of defenders and fallen with devastating force 
upon the exposed settlements along the west- 

276 



THE COLONIZATION OF CUMBERLAND 

ern frontiers of North Carolina, Virginia, and 
Pennsylvania. This defense of Boonesbor- 
ough, therefore, is deserving of commemora- 
tion in the annals of the Revolution, along with 
Lexington and Bunker's Hill. Coupled with 
Clark's meteoric campaign in the Northwest 
and the subsequent struggles in the defense 
of Kentucky, it may be regarded as an 
event basically responsible for the retention of 
the trans-Alleghany region by the United 
States. The bitter struggles, desperate sieges, 
and bloody reprisals of these dark years came 
to a close with the expeditions of Clark and 
Logan in November, 1782, which appro- 
priately concluded the Revolution in the West 
by putting a definite end to all prospect of 
formidable invasion of Kentucky. 

In November, 1777, "Washington District," 
the delegates of which had been received in the 
preceding year by the Provincial Congress of 
North Carolina, was formed by the North 
Carolina General Assembly into Washington 
County ; and to it were assigned the boundaries 
of the whole of the present state of Tennessee. 

277 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

While this immense territory was thus being 
definitely included within the bounds of North 
Carolina, Judge Henderson on behalf of the 
Transylvania Company was making a vigorous 
effort to secure the reestablishment of its rights 
from the Virginia Assembly. By order of the 
Virginia legislature, an exhaustive investiga- 
tion of the claims of the Transylvania Com- 
pany was therefore made, hearings being held 
at various points in the back country. On 
July 18, 1777, Judge Henderson presented 
to the peace commissioners for North Carolina 
and Virginia at the Long Island treaty ground 
an elaborate memorial in behalf of the Tran- 
sylvania Company, which the commissioners 
unanimously refused to consider, as not com- 
ing under their jurisdiction. 189 Finally, after 
a full and impartial discussion before the Vir- 
ginia House of Delegates, that body declared 
the Transylvania purchase void. 190 But in 
consideration of "the very great expense [in- 
curred by the company] in making the said 
purchase, and in settling the said lands, by 
which the commonwealth is likely to receive 

278 



THE COLONIZATION OF CUMBERLAND 

great advantage, by increasing its inhabitants, 
and establishing a barrier against the Indians," 
the House of Delegates granted Richard Hen- 
derson and Company two hundred thousand 
acres of land situated between the Ohio and 
Green rivers, where the town of Henderson, 
Kentucky, now stands. 191 With this bursting 
of the Transylvania bubble and the vanishing 
of the golden dreams of Henderson and his as- 
sociates for establishing the fourteenth Ameri- 
can colony in the heart of the trans-Alleghany, 
a first romantic chapter in the history of West- 
ward expansion comes to a close. 

But another and more feasible project im- 
mediately succeeded. Undiscouraged by Vir- 
ginia's confiscation of Transylvania, and dis- 
regarding North Carolina's action in extend- 
ing her boundaries over the trans-Alleghany 
region lying within her chartered limits, Hen- 
derson, in whom the genius of the colonizer 
and the ambition of the speculative capitalist 
were found in striking conjunction, was now 
inspired to repeat, along broader and more 
solidly practical lines, the revolutionary ex- 

279 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

periment of Transylvania. It was not his 
purpose, however, to found an independent 
colony; for he believed that millions of acres 
in the Transylvania purchase lay within the 
bounds of North Carolina, and he wished to 
open for colonization, settlement, and the sale 
of lands, the vast wilderness of the valley of 
the Cumberland supposed to lie within those 
confines. But so universal was the prevailing 
uncertainty in regard to boundaries that it was 
necessary to prolong the North Carolina-Vir- 
ginia line in order to determine whether or not 
the Great French Lick, the ideal location for 
settlement, lay within the chartered limits of 
North Carolina. 192 

Judge Henderson's comprehensive plans 
for the promotion of an extensive colonization 
of the Cumberland region soon began to take 
form in vigorous action. Just as in his Tran- 
sylvania project Henderson had chosen Dan- 
iel Boone, the ablest of the North Carolina 
pioneers, to spy out the land and select sites 
for future location, so now he chose as leader 
of the new colonizing party the ablest of the 

280 



THE COLONIZATION OF CUMBERLAND 

Tennessee pioneers, James Robertson. Al- 
though he was the acknowledged leader of the 
Watauga settlement and held the responsible 
position of Indian agent for North Carolina, 
Robertson was induced by Henderson's liberal 
offers to leave his comparatively peaceful home 
and to venture his life in this desperate hazard 
of new fortunes. The advance party of eight 
white men and one negro, under Robertson's 
leadership, set forth from the Holston settle- 
ment on February 6, 1779, to make a prelim- 
inary exploration and to plant corn "that 
bread might be prepared for the main body 
of emigrants in the fall." After erecting a 
few cabins for dwellings and posts of defense, 
Robertson plunged alone into the wilderness 
and made the long journey to Post St. Vin- 
cent in the Illinois, in order to consult with 
George Rogers Clark, who had entered for 
himself in the Virginia Land Office several 
thousand acres of land at the French Lick. 
After perfecting arrangements with Clark for 
securing "cabin rights" should the land prove 
to lie in Virginia, Robertson returned to Wa- 

281 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

tauga to take command of the migration. 

Toward the end of the year two parties set 
out, one by land, the other by water, for the 
wonderful new country on the Cumberland 
of which Boone and Scaggs and Mansker had 
brought back such glowing descriptions. Dur- 
ing the autumn Judge Henderson and other 
commissioners from North Carolina, in con- 
junction with commissioners from Virginia, 
had been running out the boundary line be- 
tween the two states. On the very day — 
Christmas, 1779 — that Judge Henderson 
reached the site of the Transylvania Fort, now 
called Boonesborough, the swarm of colonists 
from the parent hive at Watauga, under Rob- 
ertson's leadership, reached the French Lick; 
and on New Year's Day, 1780, crossed the 
river on the ice to the present site of Nashville. 

The journal of the other party, which, as 
has been aptly said, reads like a chapter from 
one of Captain Mayne Reid's fascinating 
novels of adventure, was written by Colonel 
John Donelson, the father-in-law of Andrew 
Jackson. Setting out from Fort Patrick 

282 



THE COLONIZATION OF CUMBERLAND 

Henry on Holston River, December 22, 1779, 
with a flotilla consisting of about thirty flat- 
boats, dugouts, and canoes, they encountered 
few difficulties until they began to run the 
gauntlet of the Chickamauga towns on the 
Tennessee. Here they were furiously at- 
tacked by the Indians, terrible in their red and 
black war-paint ; and a well-filled boat lagging 
in the rear, with smallpox on board, was driven 
to shore by the Indians. The occupants were 
massacred; but the Indians at once contracted 
the disease and died by the hundreds. This 
luckless sacrifice of "poor Stuart, his family 
and friends," while a ghastly price to pay, un- 
doubtedly procured for the Cumberland settle- 
ments comparative immunity from Indian 
forays until the new-comers had firmly estab- 
lished themselves in their wilderness strong- 
hold. Eloquent of the granite endurance and 
courageous spirit of the typical American pio- 
neer in its thankfulness for sanctuary, for re- 
union of families and friends, and for the hum- 
ble shelter of a log cabin, is the last entry in 
Donelson's diary (April 24, 1780) : 

283 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

This day we arrived at our journey's end 
at the Big Salt Lick, where we have the pleas- 
ure of finding Capt. Robertson and his com- 
pany. It is a source of satisfaction to us to 
be enabled to restore to him and others their 
families and friends, who were intrusted to 
our care, and who, some time since, perhaps, 
despaired of ever meeting again. Though 
our prospects at present are dreary, we have 
found a few log cabins which have been built 
on a cedar bluff above the Lick by Capt. Rob- 
ertson and his company. 193 

In the midst of the famine during this terri- 
ble period of the "hard winter," Judge Hen- 
derson was sorely concerned for the fate of the 
new colony which he had projected, and imme- 
diately proceeded to purchase at huge cost a 
large stock of corn. On March 5, 1780, this 
corn, which had been raised by Captain Na- 
thaniel Hart, was "sent from Boonesborough 
in perogues [pettiaugers or flatboats] under 
the command of William Bailey Smith. . . . 
This corn was taken down the Kentucky River, 
and over the Falls of Ohio, to the mouth of 
the Cumberland, and thence up that river to 

284 



THE COLONIZATION OF CUMBERLAND 

the fort at the French Lick. It is believed 
to have been the only bread which the settlers 
had until it was raised there in 1781." 194 
There is genuine impressiveness in this heroic 
triumphing over the obstacles of obdurate na- 
ture and this paternalistic provision for the 
exposed Cumberland settlement — the pur- 
chase by Judge Henderson, the shipment by 
Captain Hart, and the transportation by 
Colonel Smith, in an awful winter of bitter 
cold and obstructed navigation, of this indis- 
pensable quantity of corn purchased for sixty 
thousand dollars in depreciated currency. 

Upon his arrival at the French Lick, shortly 
after the middle of April, Judge Henderson 
at once proceeded to organize a government 
for the little community. On May 1st arti- 
cles of association were drawn up; and im- 
portant additions thereto were made on May 
13th, when the settlers signed the complete 
series. The original document, still preserved, 
was drafted by Judge Henderson, being writ- 
ten throughout in his own handwriting; and 
his name heads the list of two hundred and 

285 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

fifty and more signatures. 195 The "Cumber- 
land Compact," as this paper is called, is fun- 
damentally a mutual contract between the co- 
partners of the Transylvania Company and 
the settlers upon the lands claimed by the com- 
pany. It represents the collective will of the 
community ; and on account of the careful pro- 
visions safeguarding the rights of each party 
to the contract it may be called a bill of rights. 
The organization of this pure democracy was 
sound and admirable — another notable early 
example of the commission form of govern- 
ment. The most remarkable feature of this 
backwoods constitution marks Judge Hender- 
son as a pioneer in the use of the political de- 
vice so prominent to-day, one hundred and 
forty years later — the "recall of judges." In 
the following striking clause this innovation 
in government was recognized thus early in 
American history as the most effective means 
of securing and safeguarding justice in a 
democracy : 

As often as the people in general are dis- 
satisfied with the doings of the Judges or 

286 



THE COLONIZATION OF CUMBERLAND 

Triers so to be chosen, they may call a new 
election in any of the said stations, and elect 
others in their stead, having due respect to 
the number now agreed to be elected at each 
station, which persons so to be chosen shall 
have the same power with those in whose room 
or place they shall or may be chosen to act. 

A land-office was now opened, the entry- 
taker being appointed by Judge Henderson, 
in accordance with the compact ; and the lands, 
for costs of entry, etc., were registered for the 
nominal fee of ten dollars per thousand acres. 
But as the Transylvania Company was never 
able to secure a "satisfactory and indisputable 
title," the clause resulted in perpetual non- 
payment. In 1783, following the lead of Vir- 
ginia in the case of Transylvania, North Caro- 
lina declared the Transylvania Company's 
purchase void, but granted the company in 
compensation a tract of one hundred and 
ninety thousand acres in Powell's Valley. 196 
As compensation, the grants of North Caro- 
lina and Virginia were quite inadequate, con- 
sidering the value of the service in behalf of 

287 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

permanent western colonization rendered by 
the Transylvania company. 197 

James Robertson was chosen as presiding 
officer of the court of twelve commissioners, 
and was also elected commander-in-chief of 
the military forces of the eight little associated 
settlements on the Cumberland. Here for the 
next two years the self-reliant settlers under 
Robertson's wise and able leadership success- 
fully repelled the Indians in their guerrilla 
warfare, firmly entrenched themselves in their 
forest-girt stronghold, and vindicated their 
claim to the territory by right of occupation 
and conquest. Here sprang up in later times 
a great and populous city — named, strangely 
enough, neither for Henderson, the founder, 
nor for Robertson and Donelson, the leaders 
of the two colonizing parties, but for one hav- 
ing no association with its history or origins, 
the gallant North Carolinian, General Francis 
Nash, who was killed at the Battle of German- 
town. 



288 



CHAPTER XVIII 

king's mountain 

With the utmost satisfaction I can acquaint you with the 
sudden and favorable turn of our public affairs. A few days 
ago destruction hung over our heads. Cornwallis with at 
least 1500 British and Tories waited at Charlotte for the 
reinforcement of 1000 from Broad River, which reinforcement 
has been entirely cut off, 130 killed and the remainder cap- 
tured. Cornwallis immediately retreated, and is now on his 
way toward Charleston, with part of our army in his rear. . . . 
— Elizabeth Maxwell Steel: Salisbury, October 
25, 1780. 

SO thoroughly had the Cherokees been sub- 
dued by the devastations of the campaign 
of 1776 that for several years thereafter they 
were unable to organize for a new campaign 
against the backwoodsmen along the frontiers 
of North Carolina and Tennessee. During 
these years the Holston settlers principally 
busied themselves in making their position se- 
cure, as well as in setting their house in order 
by severely punishing the lawless Tory element 
among them. In 1779 the Chickamaugas, 

289 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

with whom The Dragging Canoe and his ir- 
reconcilable followers among the Cherokees 
had joined hands after the campaign of 1776, 
grew so bold in their bloody forays upon small 
exposed settlements that North Carolina and 
Virginia in conjunction despatched a strong 
expedition against them. Embarking on 
April 10th at the mouth of Big Creek near 
the present Rogersville, Tennessee, three hun- 
dred and fifty men led by Colonel Evan Shelby 
descended the Tennessee to the fastnesses of 
the Chickamaugas. Meeting with no resist- 
ance from the astonished Indians, who fled to 
the shelter of the densely wooded hills, they 
laid waste the Indian towns and destroyed the 
immense stores of goods collected by the Brit- 
ish agents for distribution among the red men. 
The Chickamaugas were completely quelled; 
and during the period of great stress through 
which the Tennessee frontiersmen were soon 
to pass, the Cherokees were restrained through 
the wise diplomacy of Joseph Martin, Super- 
intendent of Indian affairs for Virginia. 

The great British offensive against the 
290 



KING'S MOUNTAIN 

Southern colonies, which were regarded as the 
vulnerable point in the American Confederacy, 
was fully launched upon the fall of Charleston 
in May, 1780. Cornwallis established his 
headquarters at Camden; and one of his lieu- 
tenants, the persuasive and brilliant Fergu- 
son, soon rallied thousands of Loyalists in 
South Carolina to the British standard. 
When Cornwallis inaugurated his campaign 
for cutting Washington wholly off from the 
Southern colonies by invading North Carolina, 
the men upon the western waters realized that 
the time had come to rise, in defense of their 
state and in protection of their homes. Two 
hundred Tennessee riflemen from Sullivan 
County, under Colonel Isaac Shelby, were en- 
gaged in minor operations in South Carolina 
conducted by Colonel Charles McDowell; and 
conspicuous among these engagements was the 
affair at Musgrove's Mill on August 18th 
when three hundred horsemen led by Colonel 
James Williams, a native of Granville County, 
North Carolina, Colonel Isaac Shelby, and 
Lieutenant-Colonel Clark of Georgia repulsed 

291 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

with heavy loss a British force of between 
four and five hundred. 

These minor successes availed nothing in 
face of the disastrous defeat of Gates by Corn- 
wallis at Camden on August 16th and the 
humiliating blow to Sumter at Rocky Mount 
on the following day. Ferguson hotly pur- 
sued the frontiersmen, who then retreated over 
the mountains; and from his camp at Gilbert 
Town he despatched a threatening message to 
the Western leaders, declaring that if they did 
not desist from their opposition to the British 
arms and take protection under his standard, 
he would march his army over the mountains 
and lay their country waste with fire and 
sword. Stung to action, Shelby hastily rode 
off to consult with Sevier at his log castle near 
Jonesboro; and together they matured a plan 
to arouse the mountain men and attack Fergu- 
son by surprise. In the event of failure, these 
wilderness free-lances planned to leave the 
country and find a home with the Spaniards 
in Louisiana. 198 

At the original place of rendezvous, the 
292 



KING'S MOUNTAIN 

Sycamore Shoals of the Watauga, the over- 
mountain men gathered on September 25th. 
There an eloquent sermon was preached to 
them by that fiery man of God, the Reverend 
Samuel Doak, who concluded his discourse 
with a stirring invocation to the sword of the 
Lord and of Gideon — a sentiment greeted with 
the loud applause of the militant frontiers- 
men. Here and at various places along the 
march they were joined by detachments of bor- 
der fighters summoned to join the expedition 
— Colonel William Campbell, who with some 
reluctance had abandoned his own plans in re- 
sponse to Shelby's urgent and repeated mes- 
sage, in command of four hundred hardy fron- 
tiersmen from Washington County, Virginia; 
Colonel Benjamin Cleveland, with the wild 
fighters of Wilkes known as "Cleveland's 
Bulldogs"; Colonel Andrew Hampton, with 
the stalwart riflemen of Rutherford; Major 
Joseph Winston, the cousin of Patrick Henry, 
with the flower of the citizenry of Surry; the 
McDowells, Charles and Joseph, with the bold 
borderers of Burke; Colonels Lacy and Hill, 

293 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

with well-trained soldiers of South Carolina; 
and Brigadier- General James Williams, lead- 
ing the intrepid Rowan volunteers. 

Before breaking camp at Quaker Meadows, 
the leading officers in conference chose Colonel 
William Campbell as temporary officer of the 
day, until they could secure a general officer 
from headquarters as commander-in-chief. 
The object of the mountaineers and big-game 
hunters was, in their own terms, to pursue Fer- 
guson, to run him down, and to capture him. 
In pursuance of this plan, the leaders on ar- 
riving at the ford of Green River chose out 
a force of six hundred men, with the best 
mounts and equipment; and at daybreak on 
October 6th this force of picked mounted rifle- 
men, followed by some fifty "foot-cavalry" 
eager to join in the pursuit, pushed rapidly on 
to the Cowpens. Here a second selection took 
place ; and Colonel Campbell was again elected 
commander of the detachment, now number- 
ing some nine hundred and ten horsemen and 
eighty odd footmen, which dashed rapidly on 
in pursuit of Ferguson. 

294 



KING'S MOUNTAIN 

The British commander had been apprised 
of the coming of the over-mountain men. 
Scorning to make a forced march and attempt 
to effect a junction with Cornwallis at Char- 
lotte, Ferguson chose to make a stand and dis- 
pose once for all of the barbarian horde whom 
he denounced as mongrels and the dregs of 
mankind. After despatching to Cornwallis a 
message asking for aid, Ferguson took up his 
camp on King's Mountain, just south of the 
North Carolina border line, in the present 
York County, South Carolina. Here, after 
his pickets had been captured in silence, he 
was surprised by his opponents. At three 
o'clock in the afternoon of October 7th the 
mountain hunters treed their game upon the 
heights. 

The battle which ensued presents an extraor- 
dinary contrast in the character of the combat- 
ants and the nature of the strategy and 
tactics. 199 Each party ran true to form — Fer- 
guson repeating Braddock's suicidal policy of 
opposing bayonet charges to the deadly fusil- 
lade of riflemen, who in Indian fashion were 

295 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

carefully posted behind trees and every shelter 
afforded by the natural inequalities of the 
ground. In the army of the Carolina and 
Virginia frontiersmen, composed of independ- 
ent detachments recruited from many sources 
and solicitous for their own individual credit, 
each command was directed in the battle by 
its own leader. Campbell — like Cleveland, 
Winston, Williams, Lacey, Shelby, McDow- 
ell, Sevier, and Hambright — personally led 
his own division; but the nature of the fight- 
ing and the peculiarity of the terrain made it 
impossible for him, though the chosen com- 
mander of the expedition, actually to play that 
role in the battle. The plan agreed upon in 
advance by the frontier leaders was simple 
enough — to surround and capture Ferguson's 
camp on the high plateau. The more experi- 
enced Indian fighters, Sevier and Shelby, un- 
questionably suggested the general scheme 
which in any case would doubtless have been 
employed by the frontiersmen; it was to give 
the British "Indian play" — namely to take 
cover everywhere and to fire from natural shel- 

296 



KING'S MOUNTAIN 

ter. Cleveland, a Hercules in strength and 
courage who had fought the Indians and recog- 
nized the wisdom of Indian tactics, ordered 
his men, as did some of the other leaders, to 
give way before a bayonet charge, but to re- 
turn to the attack after the charge had spent 
its force. 

"My brave fellows," said Cleveland, "every 
man must consider himself an officer, and act 
from his own judgment. Fire as quick as you 
can, and stand your ground as long as you can. 
When you can do no better, get behind trees, 
or retreat ; but I beg you not to run quite off. 
If we are repulsed, let us make a point of re- 
turning and renewing the fight; perhaps we 
may have better luck in the second attempt 
than in the first." 

The plateau upon which Ferguson was en- 
camped was the top of an eminence some six 
hundred yards long and about two hundred 
and fifty yards from one base across to the 
other; and its shape was that of an Indian 
paddle, varying from one hundred and twenty 
yards at the blade to sixty yards at the handle 
in width. Outcropping boulders upon the 

297 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

outer edge of the plateau afforded some slight 
shelter for Ferguson's force ; but, unsuspicious 
of attack, Ferguson had made no abatis to 
protect his camp from the assault to which it 
was so vulnerable because of the protection 
of the timber surrounding it on all sides. As 
to the disposition of the attacking force, the 
center to the northeast was occupied by Cleve- 
land with his "Bulldogs," Hambright with his 
South Fork Boys from the Catawba (now 
Lincoln County, North Carolina), and Win- 
ston with his Surry riflemen ; to the south were 
the divisions of Joseph McDowell, Sevier, and 
Campbell; while Lacey's South Carolinians, 
the Rowan levies under Williams, and the 
Watauga borderers under Shelby were sta- 
tioned upon the north side. Ferguson's forces 
consisted of Provincial Rangers, one hundred 
and fifty strong, and other well-drilled Loyal- 
ists, between eight and nine hundred in num- 
ber; but his strength was seriously weakened 
by the absence of a foraging party of between 
one and two hundred who had gone off on the 
morning the battle occurred. Shelby's men, 

298 



KING'S MOUNTAIN 

before getting into position, received a hot fire, 
the opening shots of the engagement. This 
inspired Campbell, who now threw off his coat, 
to shout encouraging orders to his men posted 
on the side of the mountain opposite to Shel- 
by's force. When Campbell's Virginians ut- 
tered a series of piercing shouts, the British 
officer, De Peyster, second in command, re- 
marked to his chief: "These things are omi- 
nous — these are the damned yelling boys." 

The battle, which lasted some minutes short 
of an hour, was waged with terrific ferocity. 
The Loyalist militia, whenever possible, fired 
from the shelter of the rocks; while the Pro- 
vincial Corps, with fixed bayonets, steadily 
charged the frontiersmen, who fired at close 
range and then rapidly withdrew to the very 
base of the mountain. After each bayonet 
charge the Provincials coolly withdrew to the 
summit, under the accumulating fire of the re- 
turning mountaineers, who quickly gathered in 
their rear. Owing to their elevated location, 
the British, although using the rapid-fire 
breech-loading rifle invented by Ferguson 

299 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

himself, found their vision deflected, and con- 
tinually fired high, thus suffering from na- 
ture's handicap, refraction. 200 The militia, us- 
ing sharpened butcher-knives which Ferguson 
had taught them to utilize as bayonets, charged 
against the mountaineers ; but their fire, in an- 
swer to the deadly fusillade of the expert 
squirrel-shooters, was belated, owing to the 
fact that they could not fire while the crudely 
improvised bayonets remained inserted in their 
pieces. The Americans, continually firing up- 
ward, found ready marks for their aim in the 
clearly delineated outlines of their adversaries, 
and felt the fierce exultation which animates 
the hunter who has tracked to its lair and sur- 
rounded wild game at bay. 

The leaders of the various divisions of the 
mountaineers bore themselves with impetuous 
bravery, recklessly rushing between the lines 
of fire and with native eloquence, interspersed 
with profanity, rallying their individual com- 
mands again and again to the attack. The 
valiant Campbell scaled the rugged heights, 
loudly encouraging his men to the ascent. 

300 



KING'S MOUNTAIN 

Cleveland, resolutely facing the foe, urged on 
his Bulldogs with the inspiriting words: 
"Come, boys; let 's try 'em again. We '11 have 
better luck next time." No sooner did Shel- 
by's men reach the bottom of the hill, in re- 
treating before a charge, than their com- 
mander, fiery and strenuous, ardently shouted : 
"Now boys, quickly reload your rifles, and 
let 's advance upon them, and give them an- 
other hell of a fire." The most deadly charge, 
led by De Peyster himself, fell upon Ham- 
bright's South Fork boys; and one of their 
gallant officers, Major Chronicle, waving his 
military hat, was mortally wounded, the com- 
mand, "Face to the hill!", dying on his lips. 
These veteran soldiers, unlike the mountain- 
eers, firmly met the shock of the charge, and a 
number of their men were shot down or trans- 
fixed; but the remainder, reserving their fire 
until the charging column was only a few feet 
away, poured in a deadly volley before retir- 
ing. The gallant William Lenoir, whose 
reckless bravery made him a conspicuous tar- 
get for the enemy, received several wounds 

301 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

and emerged from the battle with his hair and 
clothes torn by balls. The ranking American 
officer, Brigadier-General James Williams, 
was mortally wounded while "on the very top 
of the mountain, in the thickest of the fight"; 
and as he momentarily revived, his first words 
were: "For God's sake, boys, don't give up 
the hill." 201 Hambright, sorely wounded, his 
boot overflowing with blood and his hat riddled 
with three bullet holes, declined to dismount, 
but pressed gallantly forward, exclaiming in 
his "Pennsylvania Dutch": "Huzza, my 
prave poys, fight on a few minutes more, and 
the pattle will be over!" On the British side, 
Ferguson was supremely valorous, rapidly 
dashing from one point to another, rallying his 
men, oblivious to all danger. Wherever the 
shrill note of his silver whistle sounded, there 
the fighting was hottest and the British resist- 
ance the most stubborn. His officers fought 
with the characteristic steadiness of the British 
soldier; and again and again his men charged 
headlong against the wavering and fiery circle 
of the frontiersmen. 202 

302 




ISAAC SHELBY 

From a painting by Matthew Harris Jouett in the possession of William 
R. Shelby, Esq., Grand Rapids, Mich. 



KING'S MOUNTAIN 

Ferguson's boast that "he was on King's 
Mountain, that he was king of the Mountain, 
and God Almighty could not drive him from 
it" was doubtless prompted, less by a belief 
in the impregnability of his position, than by 
a desperate desire to inspire confidence in his 
men. His location was admirably chosen for 
defense against attack by troops employing 
regulation tactics; but, never dreaming of the 
possibility of sudden investment, Ferguson 
had erected no fortifications for his encamp- 
ment. His frenzied efforts on the battle-field 
seem like a mad rush against fate ; for the place 
was indefensible against the peculiar tactics 
of the frontiersmen. While the mountain 
flamed like a volcano and resounded with the 
thunder of the guns, a steady stricture was in 
progress. The lines were drawn tighter and 
tighter around the trapped and frantically 
struggling army; and at last the fall of their 
commander, riddled with bullets, proved the 
tragic futility of further resistance. The 
game was caught and bagged to a man. 
When Winston, with his fox-hunters of Surry, 

303 



KING'S MOUNTAIN 

dashed recklessly through the woods, says a 
chronicler of the battle, and the last to come 
into position, 

Flow'd in, and settling, circled all the lists, 

then 

From all the circle of the hills 
death sleeted in upon the doomed. 

The battle was decisive in its effect- — shatter- 
ing the plans of Cornwallis, which till then 
appeared certain of success. The victoiy put 
a full stop to the invasion of North Carolina, 
which was then well under way. Cornwallis 
abandoned his carefully prepared campaign 
and immediately left the state. After ruth- 
lessly hanging nine prisoners, an action which 
had an effectively deterrent effect upon fu- 
ture Tory murders and depredations, the pa- 
triot force quietly disbanded. The brilliant 
initiative of the buckskin-clad borderers, the 
strenuous energy of their pursuit, the perfec- 
tion of their surprise — all reinforced by the 
employment of ideal tactics for meeting the 
given situation — were the controlling factors 

304 



KING'S MOUNTAIN 

in this overwhelming victory of the Revolu- 
tion. The pioneers of the Old Southwest — 
the independent and aggressive yeomanry of 
North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina 
— had risen in their might. Without the aid 
or authority of blundering state governments, 
they had created an army of frontiersmen, In- 
dian-fighters, and big-game hunters which had 
found no parallel or equal on the continent 
since the Battle of the Great Kanawha. 



305 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE STATE OF FRANKLIN 

Designs of a more dangerous nature and deeper die seem to 
glare in the western revolt. ... I have thought proper to 
issue this manifesto, hereby warning all persons concerned 
in the said revolt . . . that the honour of this State has been 
particularly wounded, by seizing that by violence which, in 
time, no doubt, would have been obtained by consent, when 
the terms of separation would have been explained or stipu- 
lated, to the mutual satisfaction of the mother and new 
State. . . . Let your proposals be consistent with the honour 
of the State to accede to, which, by your allegiance as good 
citizens, you cannot violate and I make no doubt but her 
generosity, in time, will meet your wishes. 

— Governor Alexander Martin: Manifesto against 
the State of Franklin, April 25, 1785. 

TO the shrewd diplomacy of Joseph Mar- 
tin, who held the Cherokees in check dur- 
ing the period of the King's Mountain cam- 
paign, the settlers in the valleys of the Wa- 
tauga and the Holston owed their temporary 
immunity from Indian attack. But no sooner 
did Sevier and his over -mountain men return 
from the battle-field of King's Mountain than 
they were called upon to join in an expedition 

306 



THE STATE OF FRANKLIN 

against the Cherokees, who had again gone 
on the war-path at the instigation of the Brit- 
ish. After Sevier with his command had de- 
feated a small party of Indians at Boyd's 
Creek in December, the entire force of seven 
hundred riflemen, under the command of 
Colonel Arthur Campbell, with Major Joseph 
Martin as subordinate, penetrated to the heart 
of the Indian country, burned Echota, Chil- 
howee, Settiquo, Hiawassee, and seven other 
principal villages, and destroyed an immense 
amount of property and supplies. In March, 
suspecting that the arch-conspirators against 
the white settlers were the Cherokees at the 
head waters of the Little Tennessee, Sevier 
led one hundred and fifty horsemen through 
the devious mountain defiles and struck the In- 
dians a swift and unexpected blow at Tuck- 
asegee, near the present Webster, North Caro- 
lina. In this extraordinarily daring raid, one 
of his most brilliant feats of arms, Sevier lost 
only one man killed and one wounded; while 
upon the enemy he inflicted the loss of thirty 
killed, took many more prisoners, burned six 

307 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

Indian towns, and captured many horses and 
supplies. Once his deadly work was done, 
Sevier with his bold cavaliers silently plunged 
again into the forest whence he had so suddenly 
emerged, and returned in triumph to the set- 
tlements. 

Disheartened though the Indians were to see 
the smoke of their burning towns, they sullenly 
remained averse to peace; and they did not 
keep the treaty made at Long Island in July, 
1781. The Indians suffered from very real 
grievances at the hands of the lawless white 
settlers who persisted in encroaching upon the 
Indian lands. When the Indian ravages were 
resumed, Sevier and Anderson, the latter from 
Sullivan County, led a punitive expedition of 
two hundred riflemen against the Creeks and 
the Chickamaugas ; and employing the cus- 
tomary tactics of laying waste the Indian 
towns, administered stern and salutary chas- 
tisement to the copper-colored marauders. 

During this same period the settlers on the 
Cumberland were displaying a grim fortitude 
and stoical endurance in the face of Indian 

308 



THE STATE OF FRANKLIN 

attack forever memorable in the history of the 
Old Southwest. On the night of January 15, 
1781, the settlers at Freeland's Station, after 
a desperate resistance, succeeded in beating 
off the savages who attacked in force. At 
Nashborough on April 2d, twenty of the set- 
tlers were lured from the stockade by the art- 
ful wiles of the savages ; and it was only after 
serious loss that they finally won their way 
back to the protection of the fort. Indeed, 
their return was due to the fierce dogs of the 
settlers, which were released at the most critical 
moment, and attacked the astounded Indians 
with such ferocity that the diversion thus 
created enabled the settlers to escape from the 
deadly trap. During the next two years the 
history of the Cumberland settlements is but 
the gruesome recital of murder after murder 
of the whites, a few at a time, by the lurking 
Indian foe. Robertson's dominant influence 
alone prevented the abandonment of the sorely 
harassed little stations. The arrival of the 
North Carolina commissioners for the purpose 
of laying off bounty lands and settlers' pre- 

309 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

emptions, and the treaty of peace concluded 
at the French Lick on November 5 and 6, 
1783, gave permanence and stability to the 
Cumberland settlements. The lasting friend- 
ship of the Chickasaws was won; but the 
Creeks for some time continued to harass the 
Tennessee pioneers. The frontiersmen's most 
formidable foe, the Cherokees, stoically, hero- 
ically fighting the whites in the field, and 
smallpox, syphilis, and drunkenness at home, 
at last abandoned the unequal battle. The 
treaty at Hopewell on November 28, 1785, 
marks the end of an era — the Spartan yet 
hopeless resistance of the intrepid red men to 
the relentless and frequently unwarranted ex- 
propriation by the whites of the ancient and 
immemorial domain of the savage. 

The skill in self-government of the isolated 
people beyond the mountains, and the ability 
they had already demonstrated in the organi- 
zation of "associations," received a strong 
stimulus on June 2, 1784, when the legislature 
of North Carolina ceded to the Congress of 
the United States the title which that state 

310 



THE STATE OF FRANKLIN 

possessed to the land west of the Alleghanies. 
Among the terms of the Cession Act were 
these conditions: that the ceded territory 
should be formed into a separate state or 
states; and that if Congress should not accept 
the lands thus ceded and give due notice within 
two years, the act should be of no force and 
the lands should revert to North Carolina. 203 
No sooner did this news reach the Western 
settlers than they began to mature plans for 
the organization of a government during the 
intervening twelve months. Their exposed 
condition on the frontiers, still harassed by 
the Indians, and North Carolina's delay in 
sending goods promised the Indians by a for- 
mer treaty, both promoted Indian hostility; 
and these facts, combined with their remote 
location beyond the mountains, rendering them 
almost inaccessible to communication with 
North Carolina — all rendered the decision of 
the settlers almost inevitable. Moreover, the 
allurements of high office and the dazzling 
dreams of ambition were additional motives 
sufficiently human in themselves to give driv- 

311 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

ing power to the movement toward independ- 
ence. 

At a convention assembled at Jonesborough 
on August 23, 1784, delegates from the coun- 
ties of Washington, Sullivan, and Greene 
characteristically decided to organize an "As- 
sociation." They solemnly declared by reso- 
lution : "We have a just and undeniable right 
to petition to Congress to accept the session 
made by North Carolina, and for that body to 
countenance us for forming ourselves into a 
separate government, and to frame either a 
permanent or temporary constitution, agree- 
ably to a resolve of Congress. . . ." Mean- 
while, Governor Martin, largely as the result 
of the prudent advice of North Carolina's 
representative in Congress, Dr. Hugh Wil- 
liamson, was brought to the conclusion that 
North Carolina, in the passage of the cession 
act, had acted precipitately. This important 
step had been taken without the full considera- 
tion of the people of the state. Among the 
various arguments advanced by Williamson 
was the impressive contention that, in accord- 

312 



THE STATE OF FRANKLIN 

ance with the procedure in the case of other 
states, the whole expense of the huge Indian 
expeditions in 1776 and the heavy militia aids 
to South Carolina and Georgia should be cred- 
ited to North Carolina as partial fulfilment 
of her continental obligations before the ces- 
sion should be irrevocably made to the Federal 
government. Williamson's arguments proved 
convincing; and it was thus primarily for 
economic reasons of far-reaching national im- 
portance that the assembly of North Caro- 
lina (October 22 to November 25, 1784) re- 
pealed the cession act made the preceding 
spring."" 

Before the news of the repeal of the cession 
act could reach the western waters, a second 
convention met at Jonesborough on December 
17th. Sentiment at this time was much di- 
vided, for a number of the people, expecting 
the repeal of the cession act, genuinely de- 
sired a continued allegiance to North Caro- 
lina. Of these may well have been John 
Sevier, who afterward declared to Joseph Mar- 
tin that he had been "Draged into the Frank- 

313 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

lin measures by a large number of the people 
of this country." 205 The principal act of this 
convention was the adoption of a temporary 
constitution for six months and the provision 
for a convention to be held within one year, at 
the expiration of which time this constitution 
should be altered, or adopted as the permanent 
constitution of the new state. 206 The scholars 
on the western waters, desiring to commemo- 
rate their aspirations for freedom, chose as 
the name of the projected new state: "Frank- 
land" — the Land of the Free. The name 
finally chosen, however, perhaps for reasons of 
policy, was "Franklin," in honor of Benjamin 
Franklin. Meanwhile, in order to meet the 
pressing needs for a stable government along 
the Tennessee frontier, the North Carolina 
assembly, which repealed the cession act, cre- 
ated out of the four western counties the 
District of Washington, with John Hay- 
wood as presiding judge and David Camp- 
bell as associate, and conferred upon John 
Sevier the rank of brigadier-general of the 
new district. The first week in December 

314 



THE STATE OF FRANKLIN 

Governor Martin sent to Sevier his military 
commission; and replying to Joseph Martin's 
query (December 31, 1784, prompted by Gov- 
ernor Martin) as to whether, in view of the 
repeal of the cession act, he intended to persist 
in revolt or await developments, Sevier gave 
it out broadcast that "we shall pursue no fur- 
their measures as to a new State." 

Owing to the remoteness of the Tennessee 
settlements and the difficulty of appreciating 
through correspondence the atmosphere of 
sentiment in Franklin, Governor Martin real- 
ized the necessity of sending a personal repre- 
sentative to discover the true state of affairs 
in the disaffected region beyond the moun- 
tains. For the post of ambassador to the new 
government, Governor Martin selected a man 
distinguished for mentality and diplomatic 
skill, a pioneer of Tennessee and Kentucky, 
Judge Richard Henderson's brother, Colonel 
Samuel Henderson. Despite Sevier's dis- 
avowal of any further intention to establish 
a new state, the governor gave Colonel Hen- 
derson elaborate written instructions, the pur- 

315 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

port of which was to learn all that he could 
about the political complexion of the Tennes- 
see frontiersmen, the sense of the people, and 
the agitation for a separate commonwealth. 
Moreover, in the hope of placating the leading 
chieftains of the Cherokees, who had bitterly- 
protested against the continued aggressions 
and encroachments upon their lands by the 
lawless borderers, he instructed Colonel Hen- 
derson also to learn the temper and disposi- 
tions of the Indians, and to investigate the 
case of Colonel James Hubbardt who was 
charged with the murder of Untoola of Set- 
tiquo, a chief of the Cherokees. 

When Colonel Henderson arrived at Jones- 
borough, he found the third Franklin legis- 
lature in session, and to this body he presented 
Governor Martin's letter of February 27, 
1785. In response to the governor's request 
for an "account of the late proceedings of the 
people in the western country," an extended 
reply was drafted by the new legislature ; and 
this letter, conveyed to Governor Martin by 
Colonel Henderson, in setting forth in detail 

316 



THE STATE OF FRANKLIN 

the reasons for the secession, made the follow- 
ing significant statement: "We humbly 
thank North Carolina for every sentiment of 
regard she has for us, but are sorry to observe, 
that as it is founded upon principles of in- 
terest, as is aparent from the tenor of your 
letter, we are doubtful, when the cause ceases 
which is the basis of that affection, we shall 
lose your esteem." At the same time (March 
22d), Sevier, who had just been chosen Gov- 
ernor of the State of Franklin, transmitted 
to Governor Martin by Colonel Henderson a 
long letter, not hitherto published in any his- 
tory of the period, in which he outspokenly 
says: 

It gives me great pain to think there should 
arise any Disputes between us and North 
Carolina, & I flatter myself when North Caro- 
lina states the matter in a fair light she will 
be fully convinced that necessity and self- 
preservation have Compelled Us to the meas- 
ures we Have taken, and could the people have 
discovered that No. Carolina would Have pro- 
tected and Govern'd them, They would have 
remained where they were ; but they perceived 

317 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

a neglect and Coolness, and the Language of 
Many of your most leading members Con- 
vinced them they were Altogether Disre- 
garded. 207 

Following the issuance of vigorous manifestos 
by Martin (April 25th) and Sevier (May 
15th), 208 the burden of the problem fell upon 
Richard Caswell, who in June succeeded Mar- 
tin as Governor of North Carolina. 

Meantime the legislature of the over-moun- 
tain men had given the name of Franklin to 
the new state, although for some time it con- 
tinued to be called by many Frankland, and 
its' adherents Franks. The legislature had 
also established an academy named after Gov- 
ernor Martin, and had appointed (March 
12th) William Cocke as a delegate to the Con- 
tinental Congress, urging its acceptance of the 
cession. In the Memorial from the Franklin 
legislature to the Continental Congress, deal- 
ing in some detail with North Carolina's fail- 
ure to send the Cherokees some goods prom- 
ised them for lands acquired by treaty, it is 
alleged : 

318 



THE STATE OF FRANKLIN 

She [North Carolina] immediately stoped 
the goods she had promised to give the Indians 
for the said land which so exasperated them 
that they begun to commit hostalities on our 
frontiers in this situation we were induced to 
a declaration of Independence not doubting 
we should be excused by Congress ... as 
North Carolina seemed quite regardless of our 
interest and the Indians daily murdering our 
friends and relations without distinction of age 
or sex. 209 

Sympathizing with the precarious situation 
of the settlers, as well as desiring the cession, 
Congress urged North Carolina to amend the 
repealing act and execute a conveyance of the 
western territory to the Union. 

Among the noteworthy features of the 
Franklin movement was the constitution pre- 
pared by a committee, headed by the Rever- 
end Samuel Houston of Washington County, 
and presented at the meeting of the Franklin 
legislature, Greeneville, November 14, 1785. 
This eccentric constitution was based in con- 
siderable part upon the North Carolina model ; 
but it was "rejected in the lump" and the 

319 



A 

DECLARATION op RIGHTS 

ALSO, T H B 

CONSTITUTION 

FORM of GOVERNMENT 



Agreed to, and rcfolved apon, by the Repress^ 
TATivftt of the Freemen of the 

STATE op FRANKLAND, 

Elefted and chofen for tfet pa:tia?icr purpofe, in 
Convention aflemblc-6^ <at Greensviilc, thft 
«4th X)f$mmb*s, ^85. 



■. i. ii 1 i— m *i— ^■■jjt M li l 1 1 1 1 ;. * > - 

"'- ■-, » " : -" - '"' ^ ." 

- V : - ... v v- 

? HI L jtajtr&P:, S'^A: 
Printed by Francis Bailey, at f^fflV ffW. 

M.DCC.CXXXVt* 

320 



THE STATE OF FRANKLIN 

constitution of North Carolina, almost un- 
changed, was adopted. Under this Hous- 
ton constitution, the name "Frankland" was 
chosen for the new state. The legislature 
was to consist of but a single house. In a 
section excluding from the legislature "min- 
isters of the gospel, attorneys at law, and 
doctors of physics," those were declared in- 
eligible for office who were of immoral char- 
acter or guilty of "such flagrant enormities 
as drunkenness, gaming, profane swearing, 
lewdness, Sabbath-breaking and such like," 
or who should deny the existence of God, 
of heaven, and of hell, the inspiration of 
the Scriptures, or the existence of the Trin- 
ity. Full religious liberty and the rights of 
conscience were assured — but strict orthodoxy 
was a condition for eligibility to office. No 
one should be chosen to office who was "not 
a scholar to do the business." This remark- 
able document, which provided for many 
other curious innovations in government, was 
the work of pioneer doctrinaires — Houston, 
Campbell, Cocke, and Tipton — and deserves 

321 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

study as a bizarre reflection of the spirit and 
genius of the western frontiersmen. 210 

The liberal policy of Martin, followed by 
the no less conciliatory attitude of his successor, 
Caswell, for the time proved wholly abortive. 
However, Martin's appointment of Evan 
Shelby in Sevier's place as brigadier, and of 
Jonathan Tipton as colonel of his county, pro- 
duced disaffection among the Franks ; and the 
influence of Joseph Martin against the new 
government was a powerful obstacle to its 
success. At first the two sets of military, civil, 
and judicial officers were able to work amica- 
bly together ; and a working-basis drawn up by 
Shelby and Sevier, although afterward repu- 
diated by the Franklin legislature, smoothed 
over some of the rapidly accumulating diffi- 
culties. The persistent and quiet assertion of 
authority by North Carolina, without any 
overt act of violence against the officers of 
Franklin state, revealed great diplomatic skill 
in Governors Martin and Caswell. It was 
doubtless the considerate policy of the latter, 
coupled with the defection from Sevier's cause 

322 



THE STATE OF FRANKLIN 

of men of the stamp of Houston and Tipton, 
after the blundering and cavalier rejection of 
their singular constitution, which undermined 
the foundations of Franklin. Sevier himself 
later wrote with considerable bitterness: "I 
have been faithfull, and my own breast acquits 
myself that I have acted no part but what has 
been Consistent with honor and justice, tem- 
pered with Clemency and mercy. How far 
our pretended patriots have supported me as 
their pretended chiefe magistrate, I leave the 
world at large to Judge." Arthur Camp- 
bell's plans for the formation of a greater 
Franklin, through the union of the people on 
the western waters of Virginia with those of 
North Carolina, came to nought when Vir- 
ginia in the autumn of 1785 with stern deci- 
siveness passed an act making it high treason 
to erect an independent government within her 
limits unless authorized by the assembly. 
Sevier, however, became more fixed in his de- 
termination to establish a free state, writing 
to Governor Caswell: "We shall continue to 
act independent and would rather suffer death, 

323 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

in all its various and frightful shapes, than 
conform to anything that is disgraceful." 
North Carolina, now proceeding with vigor 
(November, 1786), fully reassumed its sover- 
eignty and jurisdiction over the mountain 
counties, but passed an act of pardon and ob- 
livion, and in many ways adopted moderate 
and conciliatory measures. 

Driven to extremities, Cocke and Sevier in 
turn appealed for aid and advice to Benjamin 
Franklin, in whose honor the new state had 
been named. In response to Cocke, Frank- 
lin wrote (August 12, 1786) : "I think you 
are perfectly right in resolving to submit them 
[the Points in Dispute] to the Decision of 
Congress and to abide by their Determina- 
tion." 211 Franklin's views change in the in- 
terim; for when, almost a year later, Sevier 
asks him for counsel, Franklin has come to 
the conclusion that the wisest move for Sevier 
was not to appeal to Congress, but to endeavor 
to effect some satisfactory compromise with 
North Carolina (June 30, 1787) : 



THE STATE OF FRANKLIN 

There are only two Things that Humanity 
induces me to wish you may succeed in : The 
Accomodating your Misunderstanding with 
the Government of North Carolina, by amica- 
ble Means; and the Avoiding an Indian war, 
by preventing Encroaching on their Lands. 
. . . The Inconvenience to your People at- 
tending so remote a Seat of Government, and 
the difficulty to that Government in ruling well 
so remote a People, would I think be powerful 
Inducements with it, to accede to any fair & 
reasonable Proposition it may receive from you 
towards an Accomodation. 212 

Despite Sevier's frenzied efforts to achieve 
independence — his treaty with the Indians, his 
sensational plan to incorporate the Cherokees 
into the new state, his constancy to an ideal of 
revolt against others in face of the reality of 
revolt against himself, his struggle, equivocal 
and half-hearted, with the North Carolina au- 
thorities under Tipton — despite all these heroic 
efforts, the star of Franklin swiftly declined. 
The vigorous measures pursued by General 
Joseph Martin, and his effective influence fo- 
cussed upon a movement already honey- 

325 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

combed with disaffection, finally turned the 
scale. To the Franklin leaders he sent the 
urgent message: "Nothing will do but a sub- 
mission to the laws of North Carolina." 
Early in April, 1788, Martin wrote to Gov- 
ernor Randolph of Virginia: "I returned last 
evening from Green Co. Washington destrict, 
North Carolina, after a tower through that 
Co'ntry, and am happy to inform your Ex- 
cellency that the late unhappy dispute between 
the State of North Carolina, and the pretended 
State of Franklin is subsided." Ever brave, 
constant, and loyal to the interest of the pio- 
neers, Sevier had originally been drawn into 
the movement against his best judgment. 
Caught in the unique trap, created by the pas- 
sage of the cession act and the sudden volte- 
face of its repeal, he struggled desperately to 
extricate himself. Alone of all the leaders, 
the governor of ill-starred Franklin remained 
recalcitrant. 



S9X 



CHAPTER XX 

THE LURE OF SPAIN 213 — THE HAVEN OF 
STATEHOOD 

The people of this region have come to realize truly upon 
what part of the world and upon which nation their future 
happiness and security depend, and they immediately infer 
that their interest and prosperity depend entirely upon the 
protection and liberality of your government. 

— John Sevier to Don Diego de Gardoqui, Sep- 
tember 12, 1788. 

From the early settlements in the eastern parts of this 
Continent to the late & more recent settlements on the Ken- 
tucky in the West the same difficulties have constantly oc- 
curred which now oppress you, but by a series of patient 
sufferings, manly and spirited exertions and unconquerable 
perseverance, they have been altogether or in great measure 
subdued. 

— Governor Samuet, Johnston to James Robert- 
son and Anthony Bledsoe, January 29, 1788. 

A STRANGE sham-battle, staged like 
some scene from opera bouffe, in the 
bleak snow-storm of February, 1788, is really 
the prelude to a remarkable drama of revolt 
in which Sevier, Robertson, Bledsoe, and the 

327 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

Cumberland stalwarts play the leading roles. 
On February 27th, incensed beyond measure 
by the action of Colonel John Tipton in har- 
boring some of his slaves seized by the sheriff 
under an execution issued by one of the North 
Carolina courts, Sevier with one hundred and 
fifty adherents besieged Tipton with a few of 
his friends in his home on Sinking Creek. The 
siege was raised at daybreak on February 29th 
by the arrival of reinforcements under Colonel 
Maxwell from Sullivan County; and Sevier, 
who was unwilling to precipitate a conflict, 
withdrew his forces after some desultory fir- 
ing, in which two men were killed and several 
wounded. Soon afterward Sevier sent word 
to Tipton that on condition his life be spared 
he would submit to North Carolina. On this 
note of tragi-comedy the State of Franklin 
appeared quietly to expire. The usually 
sanguine Sevier, now thoroughly chastened, 
sought shelter in the distant settlements — 
deeply despondent over the humiliating fail- 
ure of his plans and the even more depressing 
defection of his erstwhile friends and sup- 

328 




JOHN SEVIER (1745-1815) 

From a miniature attributed to C. W. Peale, in the possession of 
Mr. Daniel V. Sevier 



THE LURE OF SPAIN 

porters. The revolutionary designs and sepa- 
ratist tendencies which he still harbored were 
soon to involve him in a secret conspiracy to 
give over the State of Franklin into the pro- 
tection of a foreign power. 

The fame of Sevier's martial exploits and 
of his bold stroke for independence had long 
since gone abroad, astounding even so famous 
an advocate of liberty as Patrick Henry and 
winning the sympathy of the Continental Con- 
gress. One of the most interested observers 
of the progress of affairs in the State of Frank- 
lin was Don Diego de Gardoqui, who had come 
to America in the spring of 1785, bearing a com- 
mission to the American Congress as Spanish 
charge d'affaires (Encargados de Negocios) 
to the United States. In the course of his 
negotiations with Jay concerning the right of 
navigation of the Mississippi River, which 
Spain denied to the Americans, Gardoqui was 
not long in discovering the violent resentment 
of the Western frontiersmen, provoked by 
Jay's crass blunder in proposing that the 
American republic, in return for reciprocal 

329 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

foreign advantages offered by Spain, should 
waive for twenty-five years her right to navi- 
gate the Mississippi. The Cumberland trad- 
ers had already felt the heavy hand of Spain 
in the confiscation of their goods at Natchez; 
but thus far the leaders of the Tennessee fron- 
tiersmen had prudently restrained the more 
turbulent agitators against the Spanish policy, 
fearing lest the spirit of retaliation, once 
aroused, might know no bounds. Throughout 
the entire region of the trans-Alleghany, a 
feeling of discontent and unrest prevailed — 
quite as much the result of dissatisfaction with 
the central government which permitted the 
wholesale restraint of trade, as of resentment 
against the domination of Spain. 

No sooner had the shrewd and watchful 
Gardoqui, who was eager to utilize the sepa- 
ratist sentiment of the western settlements in 
the interest of his country, learned of Sevier's 
armed insurrection against the authority of 
North Carolina than he despatched an emis- 
sary to sound the leading men of Franklin and 
the Cumberland settlements in regard to an 

330 



THE LURE OF SPAIN 

alliance. This secret emissary was Dr. James 
White, who had been appointed by the United 
States Government as Superintendent of In- 
dian Affairs for the Southern Department on 
November 29, 1786. Reporting as instructed 
to Don Estevan Miro, governor of Louisiana, 
White, the corrupt tool of Spain, stated con- 
cerning his confidential mission that the lead- 
ers of "Frankland" and "Cumberland district" 
had "eagerly accepted the conditions" laid 
down by Gardoqui: to take the oath of alle- 
giance to Spain, and to renounce all submis- 
sion or allegiance whatever to any other sover- 
eign or power. Satisfied by the secret advices 
received, the Spanish minister reported to the 
home authorities his confident belief that the 
Tennessee backwoodsmen, if diplomatically 
handled, would readily throw in their lot with 
Spain. 214 

After the fiasco of his siege of Tipton's 
home, Sevier had seized upon the renewal of 
hostilities by the Cherokees as a means of re- 
gaining his popularity. This he counted upon 
doing by rallying his old comrades-in-arms 

331 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

under his standard and making one of his me- 
teoric, whirlwind onslaughts upon their ancient 
Indian foe. The victory of this erstwhile pop- 
ular hero, the beloved "Nolichucky Jack of 
the Border," over the Indians at a town on the 
Hiwassee "so raised him in the esteem of the 
people on the frontier," reports Colonel Max- 
well, "that the people began [once more] to 
flock to his standard." Inspirited by this good 
turn in his fortunes, Sevier readily responded 
to Dr. White's overtures. 

Alarmed early in the year over the unpro- 
voked depredations and murders by the In- 
dians in several Tennessee counties and on the 
Kentucky road, Sevier, Robertson, and An- 
thony Bledsoe had persuaded Governor Sam- 
uel Johnston of North Carolina to address 
Gardoqui and request him to exert his influ- 
ence to prevent further acts of savage bar- 
barity. In letters to Governor Johnston, to 
Robertson, and to Sevier, all of date April 
18th, Gardoqui expressed himself in general 
as being "extremely surprised to know that 
there is a suspicion that the good government 

332 



THE LURE OF SPAIN 

of Spain is encouraging these acts of bar- 
barity." The letters to Robertson and Sevier, 
read between the lines as suggestive reinforce- 
ments of Spain's secret proposals, possess real 
significance. The letter to Sevier contains 
this dexterously expressed sentiment: "His 
Majesty is very favorably inclined to give the 
inhabitants of that region all the protection 
that they ask for and, on my part, I shall take 
very great pleasure in contributing to it on 
this occasion and other occasions." 

This letter, coupled with the confidential 
proposals of Dr. White, furnished a conven- 
ient opening for correspondence with the 
Spaniards ; and in July Sevier wrote to Gardo- 
qui indicating his readiness to accede to their 
proposals. After secret conferences with men 
who had supported him throughout the vicis- 
situdes of his ill-starred state, Sevier carefully 
matured his plans. The remarkable letter of 
great length which he wrote to Gardoqui on 
September 12, 1788, reveals the conspiracy in 
all its details and presents in vivid colors the 
strong separatist sentiment of the day. Sevier 

333 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

urgently petitions Gardoqui for the loan of a 
few thousand pounds, to enable him to "make 
the most expedient and necessary preparations 
for defense"; and offers to repay the loan 
within a short time "by sending the products 
of this region to the lower ports." Upon the 
vital matter of "delivering" the State of 
Franklin to Spain, he forthrightly says: 

Since my last of the 18th of July, upon con- 
sulting with the principal men of this coun- 
try, I have been particularly happy to find 
that they are equally disposed and ready as I 
am to accept your propositions and guaran- 
tees. You may be sure that the pleasing hopes 
and ideas which the people of this country hold 
with regard to the probabability of an alliance 
with, and commercial concessions from, you 
are very ardent, and that we are unanimously 
determined on that score. The people of this 
region have come to realize truly upon what 
part of the world and upon which nation their 
future happiness and security depend, and 
they immediately infer that their interest and 
prosperity depend entirely upon the protec- 
tion and liberality of your government. . . . 
Being the first from this side of the Appala- 
chian Mountains to resort in this way to your 

334 



THE LURE OF SPAIN 

protection and liberality, we feel encouraged 
to entertain the greatest hope that we shall 
be granted all reasonable aid by him who is 
so amply able to do it, and to give the pro- 
tection and help that is asked of him in this 
petition. You know our delicate situation and 
the difficulties in which we are in respect to 
our mother State which is making use of every 
strategem to impede the development and 
prosperity of this country. . . . Before I con- 
clude, it may be necessary to remind you that 
there will be no more favorable occasion than 
the present one to put this plan into execution. 
North Carolina has rejected the Constitution 
and moreover it seems to me that a consider- 
able time will elapse before she becomes a 
member of the Union, if that event ever hap- 
pens. 

Through Miro, Gardoqui was simultane- 
ously conducting a similar correspondence with 
General James Wilkinson. The object of the 
Spanish conspiracy, matured as the result of 
this correspondence, was to seduce Kentucky 
from her allegiance to the United States. De- 
spite the superficial similarity between the sit- 
uation of Franklin and Kentucky, it would 
be doing Sevier and his adherents a capital 

335 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

injustice to place them in the category of the 
corrupt Wilkinson and the malodorous Se- 
bastian. Moreover, the secessionists of Frank- 
lin, as indicated in the above letter, had 
the excuse of being left virtually without 
a country. On the preceding August 1st, 
North Carolina had rejected the Constitu- 
tion of the United States; and the leaders 
of Franklin, who were sorely aggrieved by 
what they regarded as her indifference and 
neglect, now felt themselves more than ever 
out of the Union and wholly repudiated by 
the mother state. Again, Sevier had the em- 
bittered feeling resultant from outlawry. Be- 
cause of his course in opposing the laws and 
government of North Carolina and in the kill- 
ing of several good citizens, including the 
sheriff of Washington County, by his forces at 
Sinking Creek, Sevier, through the action of 
Governor Johnston of North Carolina, had 
been attainted of high treason. Under the 
heavy burden of this grave charge, he felt his 
hold upon Franklin relax. Further, an atrocity 
committed in the recent campaign under 

336 



THE LURE OF SPAIN 

Sevier's leadership — Kirk's brutal murder of 
Corn Tassel, a noble old Indian, and other 
chieftains, while under the protection of a flag 
of truce — had placed a bar sinister across the 
fair fame of this stalwart of the border. Utter 
desperation thus prompted Sevier's acceptance 
of Gardoqui's offer of the protection of Spain. 
John Sevier's son, James, bore the letter 
of September 12th to Gardoqui. By a 
strangely ironic coincidence, on the very day 
(October 10, 1788) that Gardoqui wrote to 
Miro, recommending to the attention of Spain 
Dr. White and James Sevier, the emissaries 
of Franklin, with their plans and proposals, 
John Sevier was arrested by Colonel Tipton 
at the Widow Brown's in Washington County, 
on the charge of high treason. He was hand- 
cuffed and borne off, first to Jonesborough 
and later to Morganton. But his old friends 
and former comrades-in-arms, Charles and 
Joseph McDowell, gave bond for his appear- 
ance at court; and Morrison, the sheriff, who 
also had fought at King's Mountain, knocked 
the irons from his wrists and released him on 

337 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

parole. Soon afterward a number of Sevier's 
devoted friends, indignant over his arrest, rode 
across the mountains to Morganton and si- 
lently bore him away, never to be arrested 
again. In November an act of pardon and 
oblivion with respect to Franklin was passed 
by the North Carolina Assembly. Although 
Sevier was forbidden to hold office under the 
state, the passage of this act automatically op- 
erated to clear him of the alleged offense of 
high treason. With affairs in Franklin tak- 
ing this turn, it is little wonder that Gardoqui 
and Miro paid no further heed to Sevier's pro- 
posal to accept the protection of Spain. 
Sevier's continued agitation in behalf of the 
independence of Franklin inspired Governor 
Johnston with the fear that he would have to 
be "proceeded against to the last extremity." 
But Sevier's opposition finally subsiding, he 
was pardoned, given a seat in the North Caro- 
lina assembly, and with extraordinary consid- 
eration honored with his former rank of briga- 
dier-general. 

When Dr. White reported to Miro that the 
338 



THE LURE OF SPAIN 

leaders of "Frankland" had eagerly accepted 
Gardoqui's conditions for an alliance with 
Spain, he categorically added: "With regard 
to Cumberland district, what I have said of 
Frankland applies to it with equal force and 
truth." James Robertson and Anthony Bled- 
soe had but recently availed themselves of the 
good offices of Governor Johnston of North 
Carolina in the effort to influence Gardoqui to 
quiet the Creek Indians. The sagacious and 
unscrupulous half breed Alexander McGilli- 
vray had placed the Creeks under the protec- 
tion of Spain in 1784; and shortly afterward 
they began to be regularly supplied with am- 
munition by the Spanish authorities. At first 
Spain pursued the policy of secretly encour- 
aging these Indians to resist the encroach- 
ments of the Americans, while she remained 
on outwardly friendly terms with the United 
States. During the period of the Spanish 
conspiracy, however, there is reason to believe 
that Miro endeavored to keep the Indians at 
peace with the borderers, as a friendly service, 
intended to pave the way for the establishment 

339 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

of intimate relations between Spain and the 
dwellers in the trans- Alleghany. Yet his ef- 
forts cannot have been very effective; for the 
Cumberland settlements continued to suffer 
from the ravages and depredations of the 
Creeks, who remained "totally averse to peace, 
notwithstanding they have had no cause of 
offence"; and Robertson and Bledsoe reported 
to Governor Caswell (June 12, 1787) : "It 
is certain, the Chickasaws inform us, that 
Spanish traders offer a reward for scalps of 
the Americans." The Indian atrocities be- 
came so frequent that Robertson later in the 
summer headed a party on the famous Cold- 
water Expedition, in which he severely chas- 
tised the marauding Indians. Aroused by the 
loss of a number of chiefs and warriors at the 
hands of Robertson's men, and instigated, as 
was generally believed, by the Spaniards, the 
Creeks then prosecuted their attacks with re- 
newed violence against the Cumberland settle- 
ments. 

Unprotected either by the mother state or 
by the national government, unable to secure 

340 



THE LURE OF SPAIN 

free passage to the Gulf for their products, 
and sorely pressed to defend their homes, now 
seriously endangered by the incessant attacks 
of the Creeks, the Cumberland leaders decided 
to make secret overtures to McGillivray, as 
well as to communicate to Miro, through Dr. 
White, their favorable inclination toward the 
proposals of the one country which promised 
them protection. In a letter which McGilli- 
vray wrote to Miro (transmitted to Madrid, 
June 15, 1788) in regard to the visit of Messrs. 
Hackett and Ewing, two trusty messengers 
sent by Robertson and Bledsoe, he reports that 
the two delegates from the district of Cum- 
berland had not only submitted to him pro- 
posals of peace but "had added that they would 
throw themselves into the arms of His Maj- 
esty as subjects, and that Kentucky and Cum- 
berland are determined to free themselves from 
their dependence on Congress, because that 
body can not protect either their property, or 
favor their commerce, and they therefore be- 
lieve that they no longer owe obedience to a 
power which is incapable of protecting them." 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

Commenting upon McGillivray's communica- 
tion, Miro said in his report to Madrid (June 
15, 1788) : "I consider as extremely interest- 
ing the intelligence conveyed to McGillivray 
by the deputies on the fermentation existing 
in Kentucky, with regard to a separation from 
the Union. Concerning the proposition made 
to McGillivray by the inhabitants of Cumber- 
land to become the vassals of His Majesty, I 
have refrained from returning any precise an- 
swer." 

In his long letter of reply to Robertson and 
Bledsoe, McGillivray agreed to make peace 
between his nation, the Creeks, and the Cum- 
berland settlers. This letter was most favor- 
ably received and given wide circulation 
throughout the West. In a most ingratiating 
reply, offering McGillivray a fine gun and a 
lot in Nashville, Robertson throws out the fol- 
lowing broad suggestion, which he obviously 
wishes McGillivray to convey to Miro: "In 
all probability we cannot long remain in our 
present state, and if the British or any com- 
mercial nation who may be in possession of the 

342 



THE LURE OF SPAIN 

mouth of the Mississippi would furnish us with 
trade, and receive our produce there cannot 
be a doubt but the people on the west side of 
the Appalachian mountains will open their 
eyes to their real interest." Robertson actu- 
ally had the district erected out of the coun- 
ties of Davidson, Sumner, and Tennessee 
given the name of "Miro" by the Assembly 
of North Carolina in November, 1788 — a sig- 
nificant symbol of the desires of the Cumber- 
land leaders. In a letter (April 23, 1789), 
Miro, who had just received letters from Rob- 
ertson (January 29th) and Daniel Smith 
(March 4th) postmarked "District of Miro," 
observes: "The bearer, Fagot, a confidential 
agent of Gen. Smith, informed me that the 
inhabitants of Cumberland, or Miro, would ask 
North Carolina for an act of separation the 
following fall, and that as soon as this should 
be obtained other delegates would be sent from 
Cumberland to New Orleans, with the object 
of placing that territory under the domina- 
tion of His Majesty. I replied to both in 
general terms." 215 

343 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

Robertson, Bledsoe, and Smith were success- 
ful in keeping secret their correspondence with 
McGillivray and Miro; and few were in the 
secret of Sevier's effort to deliver the State 
of Franklin to Spain. Joseph Martin was 
less successful in his negotiations ; and a great 
sensation was created throughout the Southern 
colonies when a private letter from Joseph 
Martin to McGillivray (November 8, 1788) 
was intercepted. In this letter Martin said: 
"I must beg that you write me by the first 
opportunity in answer to what I am now go- 
ing to say to you. ... I hope to do honor to 
any part of the world I settle in, and am de- 
termined to leave the United States, for rea- 
sons that I can assign to you when we meet, 
but durst not trust it to paper." The general 
assembly of Georgia referred the question of 
the intercepted letter to the governor of North 
Carolina (January 24, 1789) ; and the result 
was a legislative investigation into Martin's 
conduct. Eleven months later, the North 
Carolina assembly exonerated him. From the 
correspondence of Joseph Martin and Patrick 

344 



THE LURE OF SPAIN 

Henry, it would appear that Martin, on 
Henry's advice, had acted as a spy upon the 
Spaniards, in order to discover the views of 
McGillivray, to protect the exposed white 
settlements from the Indians, and to fathom 
the designs of the Spaniards against the United 
States. 216 

The sensational disclosures of Martin's in- 
tercepted letter had no deterrent effect upon 
James Robertson in the attempted execution 
of his plan for detaching the Cumberland 
settlements from North Carolina. History 
has taken no account of the fact that Robert- 
son and the inhabitants now deliberately en- 
deavored to secure an act of separation from 
North Carolina. In the event of success, the 
next move planned by the Cumberland leaders, 
as we have already seen, was to send delegates 
to New Orleans for the purpose of placing the 
Cumberland region under the domination of 
Spain. 

A hitherto unknown letter, from Robert- 
son to (Miro), dated Nashville, September 2, 
1789, proves that a convention of the people 

345 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

was actually held — the first overt step looking 
to an alliance with Spain. In this letter Rob- 
ertson says: 

I must beg your Excellency's permission 
to take this early opportunity of thanking you 
for the honor you did me in writing by Mr. 
White. 

I still hope that your Government, and these 
Settlements, are destined to be mutually 
friendly and usefull, the people here are im- 
pressed with the necessity of it. 

We have just held a Convention; which has 
agreed that our members shall insist on being 
Seperated from North Carolina. 

Unprotected, we are to be obedient to the 
new Congress of the United States; but we 
cannot but wish for a more interesting Con- 
nection. 

The United States afford us no protection. 
The district of Miro is daily plundered and 
the inhabitants murdered by the Creeks, and 
Cherokees, unprovoked. 

For my own part, I conceive highly of the 
advantages of your Government. 217 

A serious obstacle to the execution of the 
plans of Robertson and the other leaders of 
the Cumberland settlements was the prompt 

346 



THE LURE OF SPAIN 

action of North Carolina. In actual conform- 
ity with the wishes of the Western people, as 
set forth in the petition of Robertson and 
Hayes, their representatives, made two years 
earlier, 218 the legislature of North Carolina in 
December passed the second act of cession, by 
which the Western territory of North Carolina 
was ceded to the United States. Instead of 
securing an act of separation from North 
Carolina as the preparatory step to forming 
what Robertson calls "a more interesting con- 
nection" with Spain, Robertson and his asso- 
ciates now found themselves and the transmon- 
tane region which they represented flung 
bodily into the arms of the United States. 
Despite the unequivocal offer of the calculat- 
ing and desperate Sevier to "deliver" Frank- 
lin to Spain, and the ingenious efforts of Rob- 
ertson and his associates to place the Cumber- 
land region under the domination of Spain, 
the Spanish court by its temporizing policy of 
evasion and indecision definitely relinquished 
the ready opportunities thereby afforded, of 
utilizing the powerful separatist tendencies of 

S47 



THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST 

Tennessee for the purpose of adding the em- 
pire upon the Western waters to the Spanish 
domain in America. 

The year 1790 marks the end of an era — 
the heroic age of the pioneers of the Old South- 
west. Following the acceptance of North 
Carolina's deed of cession of her Western lands 
to the Union (April 2, 1790) the Southwest 
Territory was erected on May 26th; and Wil- 
liam Blount, a North Carolina gentleman of 
eminence and distinction, was appointed on 
June 8th to the post of governor of the terri- 
tory. Two years later (June 1, 1792) Ken- 
tucky was admitted into the Union. 

It is a remarkable and inspiring circum- 
stance, in testimony of the martial instincts 
and unwavering loyalty of the transmontane 
people, that the two men to whom the Western 
country in great measure owed its preservation, 
the inciting and flaming spirits of the King's 
Mountain campaign, were the unopposed first 
choice of the people as leaders in the trying ex- 
periment of Statehood — John Sevier of Ten- 
nessee and Isaac Shelby of Kentucky. Had 

348 



THE LURE OF SPAIN 

Franklin possessed the patient will of Ken- 
tucky, she might well have preceded that region 
into the Union. It was not, however, until 
June 1, 1796, that Tennessee, after a romantic 
and arduous struggle, finally passed through 
the wide-flung portals into the domain of 
national statehood. 



349 



LIST OF NOTES 

i Roosevelt's The Winning of the West, a stirring recital 
with chief stress thrown upon the militant characteristics of 
the frontiersmen, is open to grave criticism because of failure 
to give adequate account of social and economic tendencies, 
the development of democracy, and the evolution of govern- 
ment under the pressure of frontier conditions. 

2 Johnson MSS., xii, No. 127. 

3 Journal of a Tour in Unsettled Parts of North America 
in 1796 and 1797, 217. 

4 Turner: "Significance of the Frontier in American His- 
tory," American Historical Association Report, 1893. 

s Hugh Williamson: History of North Carolina (1812), ii, 
71-2. 

« Virginia Historical Magazine, xiii, 133; William and Mary 
Quarterly, ix, 132. 

7 Virginia Historical Magazine, op. cit. Cf. also West Vir- 
ginia Historical Magazine, April, 1903. 

sBernheim: The German Element and the Lutheran Church 
in the Carolinas. 

o For this and other Moravian diaries, see Virginia Historical 
Magazine, vols, xi and xii. 

io Original diary in German in Archives of the Moravian 
Church, Winston-Salem, N. C. Cf. Mereness, Travels in the 
American Colonies 1690-17 S3, 327-356. 

« Cf. original minutes of Abington and Gwynedd Monthly 
Meetings, Pa. 

12 MS. History of Bryan family, compiled by Col. W. L. 
Bryan, Boone, N. C. 

is Ely: The Fin-leys of Bucks (Publications, Bucks County 
Historical Society) ; also "Historic Associations of Neshaminy 
Valley," Daily Intelligencer (Reading, Pa.), July 29, 1913. 
See also Wisconsin State Historical Society, Draper MSS., 
2 B 161. 

351 



LIST OF NOTES 

i* "The Creative Forces in Westward Expansion," American 
Historical Review, xx, 1. 

is North Carolina Colonial Records, vii, 100-101. 

is Magazine of American History, November, 1881. 

17 Foote: Sketches of North Carolina, xiij. 

is Howe: History of the Presbyterian Church in South 
Carolina. 

19 Virginia Historical Magazine, xiii, 127-8-9. 

20 Draper: MS. Life of Boone; Draper Collection, Wisconsin 
State Historical Society. 

21 Rowan County Records, Salisbury, N. C. 

22 Rumple: History of Rowan County. 

23 Logan: History of Upper South Carolina. 

24 "Diary of Bishop Spangenberg" (1752), North Carolina 
Colonial Records, v. 

25 Sheets: History of Liberty Baptist Association. 

26 Moravian Community Diary, preserved at Winston-Salem, 
N. C. 

27 North Carolina Colonial Records, v, 6. 

28 J. F. D. Smyth: A Tour in the United States of America 
(London: 1784), vol. 1. Chapter xxiii. 

29 Unpublished MS.: "In the Olden Time." 
soMargry: Navigation of the Mississippi, iv, 322. 

3i Raunie: Chansonnier historique du xviii e Steele, iii, 132-3. 
This translation is by Barbara Henderson. 

32 J. Haywood: Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennes- 
see (1823), 223. 

33 Byrd : History of the Dividing Line. 
3i North Carolina Colonial Records, v, 25. 

ss D. D. Wallace : The Life of Henry Laurens, Appen- 
dix iv. 

36 See also Hewit in Carroll's Collections, i, 435. Fort Prince 
George was located in the fork of the Six Mile Creek and 
Keowee River, in the southwestern part of Pickens County, 
and was completed probably by the end of 1753 (South 
Carolina Gazette, December 17, 1753). 

37 North Carolina Colonial Records, v, 140. 

38 Cited in Channing, History of the United States, ii, 5^-73 n. 

39 North Carolina Colonial Records, v, 333, 357. 

352 



LIST OF NOTES 

40 Moravian Community Diary. 

4i North Carolina Colonial Records, v, 849. 

42 Virginia Historical Magazine, xiii, 225-264. North Caro- 
lina Colonial Records, v, 560, 617. 

43 North Carolina Colonial Records, v, 579. 

44 North Carolina Colonial Records, v, 641, 742, 849. Cf. also 
Hunter: Sketches of Western North Carolina, 325. 

45 North Carolina Colonial Records, v, 604, 639. 

4c Virginia Historical Magazine, xiii, 263; North Carolina 
Colonial Records, v, 606, 609, 613. 

47 North Carolina Colonial Records, v, 585, 612-4, 635, 637. 

48 North Carolina Colonial Records, v, 610; Cf. Timberlake's 
"A Draught of the Cherokee Country" in Avery's History of 
the United States, iv, facing p. 347; Ramsey, History of Ten- 
nessee, 57. 

49 Summers: Southwest Virginia, 57-60. 

so Virginia Historical Magazine, xv, 254-7; Waddell, Augusta 
County (second edition), 115-6, 150-1. 

5i North Carolina Colonial Records, v, 606-8. 

52 Summers: Southwest Virginia, 60-1. 

53 Williamson: History of North Carolina, ii, 37, footnote. 

54 North Carolina Colonial Records, viii, 563 ; xi, map facing 
p. 80, and p. 227. 

55 North Carolina Colonial Records, v, Introduction, pp. xxx- 
xxxi. 

so Carroll's Collections, i, 433; ii, 519-20; Draper's MS. Life 
of Boone, iii, 65-6. 

57 Sparks : Washington, ii, 322. 

58 Journal: "Concerning a March that Capt. Robt. Wade 
took to the New River," in Summers, Southwest Virginia. 
62-66. 

59 Carroll's Collections, i, 443-4. 

oo South Carolina Gazette, May 12, 1759. 

si South Carolina Gazette, July 14, 1759. 

62 South Carolina Gazette, Aug. 4, Sept. 22, 1759. 

C3 North Carolina Colonial Records, vi, 221. 

64 Draper: MS. Life of Boone, iii, 75. 

65 North Carolina Colonial Records, vi, 229-230. 

ee For a full account of the part which Fort Dobbs played 

353 



LIST OF NOTES 

in this Indian warfare see the monograph, Fort Dobbs, by 
Mrs. M. H. Eliason. 

67 Maryland Gazette, May 8, 1760; Haywood: Natural and 
Aboriginal History of Tennessee, 239-40; North Carolina Co- 
lonial Records, xxii, 822. 

68 "Notes on the Indians and the Early Settlers of Western 
North Carolina," Collections of the North Carolina Historical 
Commission. Printed in Papers of A. D. Murphy, ii, 380 
et seq. 

69 Maryland Gazette, May 8, 1760. 

70 South Carolina Gazette, Dec. 23, 1760; Feb. 28, April 11, 
1761. 

7i North Carolina Colonial Records, vi, 622. 

72 J. S. Johnston: The First Explorations of Kentucky. 
Filson Club Publications, No. 13. 

73 William and Mary College Quarterly, xii, 129-134* Young: 
Genealogical Narrative of the Hart Family (1882); Nash: 
"History of Orange County," North Carolina Booklet; Hender- 
son: "A Federalist of the Old School," North Carolina Booklet. 

74 North Carolina Colonial Records, ix, 349. 

75 Turner: "The Old West," Wisconsin Historical Society 
Proceedings, 1908. 

76 Cf. "Memoir of Pleasant Henderson," Draper MSS. 2CC21- 
23; W. H. Battle: "A Memoir of Leonard Henderson," North 
Carolina University Magazine, Nov., 1859; T. B. Kingsbury: 
"Chief Justice Leonard Henderson," Wake Forest Student, 
November, 1898. 

77 "The Life and Times of Richard Henderson," in the 
Charlotte Observer, March 9 to June 1, 1913; Draper's MS. 
Life of Boone; Morehead's Address at Boonesborough, 105 n. 

78 C. W. Alvord: "The Genesis of the Proclamation of 
1763," Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, xxxvi. 

79 Sparks: Works of Franklin (1844), iii, 69-77. 
so J. M. Peck to L. C. Draper, May 15, 1854. 

si Washington to Crawford, September 21, 1767, in Sparks: 
Life and Writings of Washington, ii, 346-50. 

82 Haywood: Civil and Political History of Tennessee 
(1823), 35. 

83 Ramsey: Annals of Tennessee (1853), 69-70. 

354 



LIST OF NOTES 

84 Ramsey: Annals of Tennessee, 69. 

ss Cf. C. W. Alvord: "The British Ministry and the Treaty 
of Fort Stanwix," Wisconsin Historical Society Proceedings, 
1908. 

ss North Carolina Colonial Records, vii, 851-855. For Try- 
on's line, ibid., 245, 460, 470, 508. 

87 Johnson to Gage, December 16, 1768. 

ss Jefferson MSS. Department of state. Cf. also Weeks: 
General Joseph Martin. 

soHanna: The Wilderness Trail, ii, 216, 230, 255; Darling- 
ton: Journals of Gist, 131. 

so "Narrative of General William Hall," Draper MSS., Wis- 
consin State Historical Society. 

oi Draper: MS. Life of Boone, viii, 238. 

92 Summers: Southwest Virginia, 76. 

93 Papers of A. D. Murphy, ii, 386. 

94 Pennsylvania Journal, October 29, 1769. 

95 Compare "John Finley ; and Kentucky before Boone," 
being chapter seven in volume two of C. A. Hanna's The Wil- 
derness Trail (1911). 

96 J. W. Monette: History of the Discovery and Settle- 
ment of the Valley of the Mississippi (1846), ii, 53. 

97 Court Records of Rowan County. 

98 Cf. "The Pioneers of the West" in Missouri Republican 
(1847). Cf. also Putnam: Middle Tennessee, 20. 

99 J. M. Peck to L. C. Draper, May 15, 1854. 
ioo Missouri Republican (1847). 

ioi^4 Memorial to the Legislature of Kentucky (1812). 

102 Deposition Book No. 1, p. 156, Clark County Court, Ken- 
tucky. 

103 Cf. "Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Trail," Bristol . 
(Tennessee-Virginia) Herald Courier, Boone Trail Edition, 
April, 1917. 

104 Hall: The Romance of Western History (1857), 150-1, 
158-9. 

105 North Carolina Colonial Records, vii, 713. 
ioo Martin: History of North Carolina, ii, 191. 

107 "The Origin of the Regulation in North Carolina," Amer- 
ican Historical Review, xxi, No. 2. 

108 North Carolina Colonial Records, vii, 14-31, 32-4, 37. 

355 



LIST OF NOTES 

109 Raleigh (N. C.) Register, June 2, 1825. 

no Cf. Tryon's Journal, North Carolina Colonial Records, vii, 
819-838. 

in Tryon to Hillsborough, December 24, 1768. 

112 North Carolina Colonial Records, viii, 231-4. 

us North Carolina Colonial Records, viii, 241-244. 

n4 North Carolina Colonial Records, viii, 241-244. 

us North Carolina Colonial Records, viii, 236-240. 

"6 Cf. J. S. Bassett.: "The Regulators of North Carolina 
(1765-1771)", American Historical Association Report for 
1894. 

ii7 North Carolina Colonial Records, x, 1019-1022; Caruth- 
ers: Life of Caldwell, 145-158. 

us North Carolina Colonial Records, vi, 250. 

no Alderman: "The Baptists at the Forks of the Yadkin," 
in Baptist Historical Papers. 

120 North Carolina Colonial Records, viii, 70-80. 

121 The discovery of an immense quantity of contemporary 
documents, since Roosevelt's The Winning of the West was 
written, betrays the numerous inaccuracies of that fascinating 
work, as well as the imperfect perspective in the picture of 
the westward expansionist movement. Mr. Roosevelt's virile 
apotheosis of the strenuous pioneer seems today almost as 
old-fashioned in its method and outlook as is Draper's work 
on King's Mountain. 

122 Bancroft Transcripts, Library of Congress. 

123 Purefoy: History of Sandy Creek Baptist Association 
(1859). 

124 Cf. "Pioneer Contributions of North Carolina to Ken- 
tucky," Charlotte (N. C.) Observer, November 10, 1913. 

125 Summers: Southwest Virginia, 616-8. 

126 North Carolina Colonial Records, xiv, 314. Cf. Farrand: 
"The Indian Boundary Line," American Historical Review, x. 

i2T Dunmore to Hillsborough, March, 1772. Cf. also Draper, 
MSr"Life of Boone, Draper MSS, 3 B 87, 88. 

128 North Carolina Colonial Records, x, 885-6. 

129 Moses Fisk: "A Summary Notice of the First Settle- 
ments made by White People within the Limits which Bound the 

356 



LIST OF NOTES 

State of Tennessee," in Massachusetts Historical Collections, 
1st series (1816). 

130 Dunmore to Dartmouth, May 16, 1774. 

isi North Carolina Colonial Records, ix, 825-6, 982. MS- 
Copy in Minutes of Council, Public Record Office, Colonial Of- 
fice, 5:355. 

132 Haywood: Civil and Political History of Tennessee 
(1823), 40. 

133 Butler: History of Kentucky (1836), p. lxvii, note. Also 
Draper MSS., 2 CC 34. 

134 Wharton: Plain Facts (1781), 9. 

135 Alvord: The Illinois-W abash Land Company Manuscript. 
i3G A copy of the opinion, bearing this date, is in the Hen- 
derson papers, Draper collection, Wisconsin Historical Society. 

i3T Extended investigation establishes beyond question that 
Judge Henderson was proceeding in strict accordance with 
law in seeking to acquire title by purchase from the Cherokees 
instead of applying to the royal government for a grant. 
When Virginia's sea-to-sea charter was abrogated in 1624, 
Virginia became a royal province and the settlement of bound- 
aries a royal prerogative. Of the three presumed Indian 
claimants to the trans- Alleghany region, viz., the Iroquois, 
Shawanoes, and Cherokees, the Iroquois by defeating the 
Shawanoes and their confederates in the Ohio Valley at the 
battle of Sandy Island in 1672 acquired title, as understood 
by the Indians, to this region. By the treaties of Lancaster 
(1744), Loggstown (1752), and Fort Stanwix (1768), the 
claims of the Shawanoes and the Iroquois to the trans- 
Alleghany territory were ceded to the crown. While the 
Shawanoes and the Cherokees acquiesced in the Treaty of 
Fort Stanwix, the crown fully acknowledged the claim of 
the Cherokees to the trans- Alleghany region; and by the 
treaties of Hard Labor (1768) and Lochaber (1770) con- 
firmed them in possession of this region to the west of the 
boundary line (See Chapter XII). The sovereignty of Eng- 
land extended over this territory, the right of eminent domain 
being vested in the crown. Henderson was legally justified 
in disregarding the royal proclamation of 1763 which was 

357 



LIST OF NOTES 

largely in the nature of a temporary expedient, and in pur- 
chasing the title to the trans-Alleghany region from the 
Cherokees in 1775. The right of eminent domain over the 
trans-Alleghany region still vested in the crown after the treaty 
of Sycamore Shoals. 

138 MS. Journals of James and Robert McAfee. Durrett 
Collection, University of Chicago. These journals are printed 
in Woods-McAfee Memorial. 

139 Hening: Virginia Statutes at Large, x, 558. 

140 Wharton: Plain Facts, 96 et seq. See also text ff. 
i*iAlvord: The Mississippi Valley in British Politics, ii, 

ch. 7; Cotterill: History of Pioneer Kentucky, 65-66. 

142 T. Wharton to Walpole, September 23, 1774, in "Letter 
Book of Thomas Wharton," Pennsylvania Magazine of History 
and Biography, xxxiii (October, 1909). 

143 For ample materials, cf. Thwaites and Kellogg: Docu- 
mentary History of Dunmore's War — 1774» 

144 Cf. "The Inauguration of Westward Expansion," News 
and Observer (Raleigh, N. C.) July 5, 1914. 

145 Letter of Major Pleasant Henderson, in The Harbinger 
(Chapel Hill, N. C), 1834. 

146 Cf. "The Beginnings of Westward Expansion," North 
Carolina Review, September and October, 1910. 

147 Draper MSS. 1 CC 2-9, Wisconsin State Historical So- 
ciety. 

148 Jefferson MSS. 5th Series, v. 8. In MSS. Division, Li- 
brary of Congress. 

149 Draper MSS. 1 CC 2-9. 

iso Diary of Morgan Brown in Tennessee Historical Maga- 
zine. 

i5i Enclosure 6 in Dunmore to Dartmouth, No. 25, March 
14, 1775, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, 5:1353. 

152 North Carolina Colonial Records, ix, 1117, 1129-1131. 

153 Draper MSS. 4 QQ 1. 

154 Virginia Historical Magazine, viii, 355. Cf. also Draper 
MSS. 2 CC 5. 

155 Letters to Washington, MSS. Division, Library of Con- 
gress. 

ise I am indebted to Miss Lucretia Hart Clay for the privi- 

358 



LIST OF NOTES 

lege of examining the extensive collection of Hart and Benton 
MSS. in her possession. 

157 The voluminous records of the treaty are found in the 
Jefferson MSS., vol. 5. MSS. Division, Library of Congress. 

158 "Narrative of Felix Walker," Original MS. owned by 
C. L. Walker. 

159 Hulbert: Boone's Road. 

160 Original of Henderson's Journal is in Draper MSS., 1 
CC 21-130 A.D. 

i6i Hall: Sketches of the West, i, 254-5. 

162 This quotation is taken from the original manuscript. 
The version in De Bow's Review, 1854, is imperfect. For 
better printed versions of Walker's two accounts, see Memoirs 
of Felix Walker, New Orleans (1877), and Journal of Ameri- 
can History, i, No. 1 (1907). 

163 Original journal of William Calk, owned by Mrs. Price 
Calk. 

164 Letters to Washington, MSS. Division, Library of Con- 
gress. 

165 North Carolina Gazette. 

166 Draper MSS., 1 CC 160-194, deposition of Arthur Camp- 
bell. 

167 Draper MSS., 1 CC 160-194, deposition of Arthur Camp- 
bell. 

168 Draper Collection, Kentucky MSS., ii. For a contrary 
view, cf. P. Henry's deposition, Kentucky MSS., i. 

169 Published in Virginia Gazette, March 23, 1775. Cf. 
"Forerunners of the Republic", Neale's Monthly, January- 
June, 1913. 

170 Draper MSS., 4 QQ 17. 

171 Letters to George Washington, MSS. Division, Library 
of Congress. 

172 Draper MSS., 1 L 20. 

173 Henderson and Luttrell to the Proprietors, July 18, 1775; 
printed in Louisville News-Letter, May 9, 1840. 

174 Nathaniel Henderson to John Williams, October 5, 1775. 
Copy supplied by heirs of B. J. Lossing. 

175 "The Struggle for the Fourteenth American Colony," 
News and Observer (Raleigh, N. C), May 19, 1918. 

359 



LIST OF NOTES 

176 in connection with Transylvania, consult G. W. Ranck: 
Boonesborough: Filson Club Publications, No. 16; F. J. Turner: 
"State Making in the Revolutionary Era", American His- 
torical Review, i; G. H. Alden: "New Governments West 
of the Alleghanies before 1780." 

177 in a "Proposal for the Sale of its Lands" ( Virginia 
Gazette, Sept. 30, 1775), the Transylvania Company offered 
to any settlers before June 1, 1776, land, limited in amount, 
at the rate of fifty shillings sterling per hundred acres, subject 
to an annual quit-rent of two shillings. Cf. facsimile. 

178 Draper MSS., 2 CC 25. 

179 These increased rates were voted at a meeting of the 
Proprietors of Transylvania at Oxford, N. C, September 25, 
1775. American Archives, iv. 

iso Draper MSS., 47 J 1. This memoir has often been 
printed. 

i8i Cf. for example, Mason to Washington, March 9, 1775, 
in Letters to Washington, MSS. Division, Library of Congress. 

182 Letter of date May 19, 1776. Draper MSS., 33 S 292-295. 

183 Original in Virginia State Archives. 

184 Original in Virginia State Archives. This and the afore- 
mentioned petition are printed in the Virginia Historical 
Magazine, xvi, 157-163. See also J. R. Robertson: Petitions 
of the Early Inhabitants of Kentucky, Filson Club Publi- 
cations, No. 27. 

185 Cf . "Richard Henderson and the Occupation of Ken- 
tucky, 1775," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, December, 
1914. Also A. B. Hulbert: Pilots of the Republic. 

iso Original in North Carolina State Archives. Printed in 
Ramsey: Annals of Tennessee (1853), 134-138. 

187 Haldimand MSS. 

188 Original in Draper MSS. Collections. It has recently been 
printed in Colonial Men and Times (1915), by Lillie Du P. 
Van C. Harper. 

189 Haywood: Civil and Political History of Tennessee, 
(1823), Appendix, 5001-503. 

iso Journal Virginia House of Delegates, Nov. 4-17, 1778. 
i9iHening: Statutes at Large, ix, 571. Cf. also Starling: 
History of Henderson County, Kentucky. 

360 



LIST OF NOTES 

192 Cf. Sioussat: "The Journal of Daniel Smith," Tennessee 
Historical Magazine, March, 1915. 

if3 The original journal is in the archives of the Tennessee 
State Historical Society. 

is* N. Hart, Jr., to Wilkins Tannehill, April 27, 1839, in 
Louisville News-Letter, May 23, 1840. 

195 The original document is preserved in the archives of 
the Tennessee Historical Society. It is printed, with a number 
of minor inaccuracies, in Putnam: Middle Tennessee, 94-102. 

196 Acts of North Carolina, 1783, ch. xxxviii, North Carolina 
State Records, xxiv, 530-531. 

197 For a more extended treatment of the subjects dealt with 
in the present chapter, see "Richard Henderson, the Author- 
ship of the Cumberland Compact, and the Founding of 
Nashville," Tennessee Historical Magazine, September, 1916. 

198 "Isaac Shelby, Revolutionary Patriot and Border Hero," 
in North Carolina Booklet, xvi, No. 3, 109-144. 

199 While Draper's King's Mountain and its Heroes is most 
valuable as a source book, it is very faulty in style and arrange- 
ment. The account of the battle, in particular, is deficient in 
perspective; and in general no clear line is drawn between tra- 
ditionary and authentic testimony. 

200 F. B. McDowell: The Battle of King's Mountain (Ral- 
eigh, 1907). This account was prepared chiefly from unpub- 
lished letters from Isaac Shelby to Franklin Brevard. 

201 A Sketch of the Life and Career of Colonel James D. 
Williams, by Rev. J. D. Bailey (Cowpens, S. C, 1898). 

202 A valuable source is the King's Mountain Expedition, by 
David Vance and Robert Henry, edited by D. L. Schenck 
(Greensboro, 1891). 

203 Cf. Acts of North Carolina, 1784, April Session, Chapters 
XI and XII. 

204 Sioussat: "The North Carolina Cession of 1784 in its 
Federal Aspects," Mississippi Valley Historical Association 
Proceedings, ii. 

205 Quoted in Alden: "The State of Franklin," American 
Historical Review, viii. 

206 See Charlotte (N. C.) Observer, September 25, 1904. Also 
consult North Carolina State Records, xxii, 664 ff. 

361 



LIST OF NOTES 

207 State Archives of North Carolina. 

208 Pennsylvania Packet, August 9, 1785. 

209 State Department MSS., Library of Congress. 

210 A single complete draft, in pamphlet form, printed In 
1786, is preserved in the archives of the Tennessee Historical 
Society. Cf. "The Provisional Constitution of Frankland," 
American Historical Magazine, i. 

2ii Franklin Papers, vii, folio 1651. MSS. Division, Library 
of Congress. 

212 Franklin Papers, viii, folio 1803. MSS. Division, Library 
of Congress. 

213 For a more extended treatment of matters dealt with in 
this chapter, compare "The Spanish Conspiracy in Tennessee," 
Tennessee Historical Magazine, December, 1917. 

214 Gardoqui to Floridablanca, April 18, 1788. 

215 On April 30th Mir6 wrote to Valdez, in Spain, informing 
him of the proposals received through McGillivray and stat- 
ing that he had returned conciliatory replies but had refrained 
from committing the Spanish Government until the pleasure 
of the king should be known. 

216 w. W. Henry: Life, Correspondence and Speeches of 
Patrick Henry, iii, 409, 412-5. 

217 Archives of the Indies, Seville, Spain. 

218 Ramsey: Annals of Tennessee (1853), 502-3. 



362 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

For the entire period (1740-1790) covered by 
this volume, an exceptionally rich store of mate- 
rials is to be found in the Colonial Records of North 
Carolina, 1662-1775 (published 1886-1890), and 
its continuation, the State Records of North Caro- 
lina, 1776-1790 (published 1895-1905), thirty 
volumes in all, including the four volumes of index. 
The introductions and supplementary matter in 
these volumes constitute a survey of the period. 
Theodore Roosevelt's The Winning of the West 
(1889-1896; various editions), a vigorous and 
stirring narrative, over-accentuates the strenuous 
life, largely underemphasises economic and govern- 
mental phases, and is by no means free from error. 

For the Scotch-Irish migrations one should read 
C. A. Hanna, The Scotch-Irish (2 vols., 1902), a 
large collection of original materials, imperfectly 
coordinated; and the excellent historical sketch by 
H. J. Ford, The Scotch-Irish in America (1905). 
For the German migrations, adequate and readable 
accounts are A. B. Faust, The German Element in 
the United States (2 vols., 1909) ; J. H. Clewell, 
History of Wachovia in North Carolina (1902); 
J. W. Wayland, The German Element of the 

363 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

Shenandoah Valley of Virginia (1907) ; and G. D. 
Bernheim, History of the German Settlements and 
of the Lutheran Church in North and South 
Carolina (1872). 

The best original sources for the life of the people 
in this period are: the State Archives of North 
Carolina at Raleigh, scientifically ordered and 
accessible to collectors ; the Lyman C. Draper Col- 
lection at Madison, Wisconsin; the Reuben T. 
Durrett Collection at the University of Chicago ; 
the State Archives of South Carolina, especially 
rich in collections of contemporary newspapers; the 
collections of the North Carolina Historical Society 
at Chapel Hill; and the Archives of the Moravian 
Church, in Pennsylvania and at Winston-Salem, 
North Carolina. The State Archives of Virginia, 
an unexplored mine of great riches, are as yet in- 
accessible, properly speaking, to investigators. The 
state of Tennessee has not yet made any provision 
for the conservation of historical materials; but 
the Tennessee Historical Society has preserved 
much valuable documentary material. 

Books shedding light, from various quarters, upon 
the life of the people in this period are: W. H. 
Foote, Sketches of North Carolina, Historical and 
Biographical (1846 ; reprinted 1913), dealing almost 
exclusively with the Presbyterian Church and the 
Scotch-Irish ; J. F. D. Smyth, A Tour in the United 
States of America (2 vols., 1784), untrustworthy 
as to historical events and partisan as to politics, 

364 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

but graphic in description of the people and the 
country; William Bartram, Travels through North 
and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida 
(1791), delightful in its simplicity and genial tone; 
William Byrd, History of the Dividing Line and 
other writings (J. S. Bassett's edition, 1901), of 
sprightly style and instinct with literary charm, 
pungently satirical, untrustworthy as to North 
Carolina; Joseph Doddridge, Notes on the Settle- 
ment and Indian Wars Sfc. (1824; reprinted 1912), 
photographic in its realistic delineation of back- 
woods conditions ; J. H. Logan, History of Upper 
South Carolina (1859) ; J. Rumple, Rowan County 
(1881; reprinted 1916); Biographical History of 
North Carolina (8 volumes printed, 1905-) ; S. 
Dunbar, A History of Travel in America (4 vols., 
1915), first volume; Travels in the American Colo- 
nies, 1690-1783 (Edited by N. D. Mereness, 1916) ; 
and O. Taylor, Historic Sullivan (1909). 

Many valuable articles, of both local and national 
interest, are found in the excellent periodical pub- 
lications : J'ames Sprunt Historical Monographs 
and Publications (16 vols., 1900-), published by 
the University of North Carolina ; North Carolina 
Booklet (18 vols., 1901-), published by the N. C. 
Society, D. A. R. ; Virginia Magazine of History 
and Biography (27 vols., 1893-) ; American His- 
torical Magazine (8 vols., 1896-1903) ; Tennessee 
Historical Magazine (4 vols., 1915- ) ; Register of 
the Kentucky State Historical Society (17 vols., 

365 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

1902- ) ; Mississippi Valley Historical Review (6 
vols., 1914-). A notable study is F. J. Turner, 
The Old West (Wisconsin Historical Society Pro- 
ceedings, 1908). 

There is no adequate account in print of the 
French and Indian War, in the Old Southwest. 
Useful sources are E. McCrady, South Carolina 
under the Royal Government, 1719-1776 (1899); 
S. A. Ashe, History of North Carolina, 1584,-1783 
(1 vol., 1908) ; L. P. Summers, History of South- 
West Virginia, 17^6-1786 (1903); J. P. Hale, 
Trans- Alleghany Pioneers (1886) ; J. A. Waddell, 
Annals of Augusta County, Virginia (1886) ; S. 
Kercheval, A History of the Valley of Virginia 
(third edition, 1902) ; A. S. Withers, Chronicles 
of Border Warfare (R. G. Thwaites' edition, 1908) ; 
B. R. Carroll, Historical Collections of South 
Carolina (2 vols., 1886) ; E. M. Avery, History of 
the United States (7 vols., 1908), fourth volume; 
J. G. M. Ramsey, Annals of Tennessee (1853) ; 
Calendar Virginia State Papers (11 vols., 1875— 
1893). An interesting biography is A. M. Waddell, 
A Colonial Officer and his Times (1890). 

The early explorations of the West, and the career 
of Boone, are treated with reasonable fullness in 
the admirable publications of the Filson Club of 
Kentucky (27 vols., 1884-) ; C. A. Hanna, The 
Wilderness Trail (2 vols., 1911); John Haywood, 
Civil and Political History of Tennessee (1823; 
reprinted 1891), written in delightfully quaint style ; 

366 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

L. and R. H. Collins, History of Kentucky (2 vols., 
1882), a mine of conglomerate material; N. M. 
Woods, The Woods-McAfee Memorial (1905) ; A. B. 
Hulbert, Pilots of the Republic (1905) and Boone's 
Wilderness Road (1903), attractively written; R. G. 
Thwaites, Daniel Boone (1911), a lifeless condensa- 
tion of Draper's sprawling projected (MS.) biog- 
raphy; and John Filson, Kentucke (1784). 

Of the voluminous mass of literature dealing with 
the Regulation in North Carolina, one should read: 
J. S. Bassett, The Regulators of North Carolina, 
1765-1771 (American Historical Association Re- 
port, 1894) ; M. DeL. Haywood, Governor Tryon of 
North Carolina (1903) ; H. Husband, An Impartial 
Relation of the First Rise and Cause of the Present 
Differences in Publick Affairs, in the Province of 
North Carolina (1770) ; and Archibald Henderson, 
The Origin of the Regulation in North Carolina 
(American Historical Review, 1916) . 

In addition to titles already mentioned, the follow- 
ing books and monographs give the best accounts 
of the Watauga and Cumberland settlements and 
of the State of Franklin: A. W. Putnam, History 
of Middle Tennessee (1859), a remarkably inter- 
esting book by a real "character" ; J. W. Caldwell, 
Constitutional History of Tennessee (second edi- 
tion, 1907) ; F. M. Turner, Life of General John 
Sevier (1910), in pedestrian style, reasonably ac- 
curate for the romantic period only ; G. H. Alden, 
The State of Franklin (American Historical Review, 

367 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

1903) ; S. B. Weeks, Joseph Martin (American His- 
torical Association Report, 1894) ; Archibald Hen- 
derson, Isaac Shelby (North Carolina Booklet, 
1917—1918). The source book for the Indian war 
of 1774 is Documentary History of Dunmore's War 
(Edited by R. G. Thwaites and L. P. Kellogg, 
1905). For exhaustive data concerning the King's 
Mountain campaign and its preliminaries, read L. C. 
Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes (1881), 
though the book is lacking in discrimination and 
deficient in perspective. For a briefer treatment, 
read D. L. Schenck, North Carolina, 1780-1781 
(1889). 

Other books and monographs dealing with the 
period, the westward movement, the settlement of 
the trans-Alleghany, and the little governments, to 
be consulted are: James Hall, Sketches of the West 
(2 vols., 1835) and The Romance of Western His- 
tory (1857) ; Journals of the House of Burgesses 
of Virginia for 1766-1769 and 1770-1772 (pub- 
lished 1906) ; G. H. Alden, New Governments 
West of the Alleghanies before 1780 (published 
1897); C. W. Alvord, The Mississippi Valley 
in British Politics (2 vols., 1917), a notable 
work, ably written and embodying an immense 
amount of information; J. T. Morehead, Address at 
Boonesborough, May 25, 184-0 (published 1840) ; 
F. J. Turner, The Significance of the Frontier in 
American History (Wisconsin Historical Society 
Proceedings, 1894) and Western State-Making in 

368 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

the Revolutionary Era (American Historical Re- 
view, 1895-1896), papers characterised by both 
brilliance and depth ; and Archibald Henderson, The 
Creative Forces in Westward Expansion (American 
Historical Review, 1914), The Occupation of Ken- 
tucky in 1775 (Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 
1914), The Founding of Nashville (Tennessee His- 
torical Magazine, 1916), and The Spanish Con- 
spiracy in Tennessee (Tennessee Historical Maga- 
zine, 1917). 

On the subject of Indian tribes and Indian 
treaties, the Annual Reports of the Bureau of 
Ethnology, in especial numbers 5, 18, and 19, al- 
though compiled from secondary historical sources 
and occasionally erroneous in important matters, 
are useful — as is also Bulletin 22 : J. Mooney, Siouan 
Tribes of the East (1895). Rare and interesting 
works dealing with the Eastern Indian tribes are 
H. Timberlake, Memoirs (1765); J. Haywood, 
Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee 
(1823) ; and J. Adair, American Indians (1775). 

For both wider and more intensive reading in 
the history of this period, consult: F. J. Turner, 
List of References on the History of the West 
(Edition of 1915) ; A Critical Bibliography of 
Kentucky History, in R. M. McElroy, Kentucky in 
the Nation's History (1909); S. B. Weeks, A 
Bibliography of the Historical Literature of North 
Carolina (1895) ; E. G. Swem, A Bibliography of 
Virginia (Part I, 1916) ; and the bibliographies in 

369 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

J. Phelan, History of Tennessee (1888) ; E. Mc- 
Crady, South Carolina under the Royal Government, 
1719-1776 (published 1899) and South Carolina 
in the Revolution, 1775-1780 (published 1901) ; and 
E. M. Avery, A History of the United States 
(1908), volumes 4, 5, and 6. 

Note. For the use of a complete set of tran- 
scripts of the Richard Henderson Papers in the 
Draper Collection, I am indebted to the North 
Carolina Historical Commission through the cour- 
tesy of the Secretary, Mr. R. D. W. Connor. 



370 



INDEX 



Abingdon: 134, 191 

Adams, John: 250 

Adams, Samuel: 241, 250 

Ahualco: 144 

Alamance: see Battles 

Alexander, Abraham: 172 

Alexander, James: 27 

Alexander, Moses: 27 

Alexander, Capt. Nathaniel : 
62 

Alexander, William: 27 

Alibamu Fort: 65 

Alleghany Mountains: 100, 
142, 155, 246, 259, 311 

Alleman's Ford: 36 

Alrichs, Herman: describes 
ambuscade of Braddock's 
army, 54 

Amazons: 267 

America: 111, 134, 159, 234, 
248, 329; continent of, 198; 
history of, 286; emigration 
to, 7; people of, 173, 186, 
198, 199; democracy in, 
XIV-XV, 174; colonies 
of, necessity for union, 65- 
66 

American: cause, 185; con- 
gress, 329, 341; confedera- 
tion, 215, 259, 201; repub- 
lic, 329 



American Revolution: 12, 123, 
239, 259, 267, 270, 277, 305 

American Union: 319, 335, 
336, 342, 348, 349 ; see Union 

Americans: 190, 300, 329, 339, 
340; pioneers, 283; civiliza- 
tion of, X, 199; character 
of, X, 30-31, 195 

Amherst, Gen. Jeffrey: 93 

Anderson, Colonel: 308 

Anshers, James: 52 

Appalachian Mountains: 4, 5, 
42, 107, 137, 139, 334, 343 

Arkansas: 122 

Atlantic Ocean: 4 

Atta-kulla-kulla, Cherokee 
chief: 66, 74, 76, 217, 242, 
262 

Augusta: 79 

B 

Bacon, Francis: 172 

Bailey, Capt. Andrew: leads 
sortie from Fort Dobbs, 80- 
82 

Baily, Francis: on frontiers- 
men, XIV 

Baker, John: 139 

Baker, William: 121 

Bainton, Epaphroditus: 130 

Balboa: 155 

Baptists: 175, 185, 190 



371 



INDEX 



Barbour, txplorer: 122 

Battles: Alamance, 168, 175, 
182-183, 186, 189, 219; Great 
Kanawha, of the, 203-204, 
209, 305; King's Mountain, 
at, ch. XVIII, 289, 337; 
Lexington, 244, 277; Long 
Island Flats, of, 262-263; 
Musgrove's Mill, at, 291 

Beaujeu, Captain: 53 

Been, John: 196 

Been, Mrs. William: 264 

"Belle Riviere": 156; see Ohio 
River 

Bentham, Jeremy: 246 

Benton, Jesse: 222 

Benton, Samuel: 170 

Benton, Thomas Hart: 170 

Bethabara: 38, 56, 75, 85, 161, 
162, 166; invested by In- 
dians, 88 

Bethania: 87 

Bienville (Blainville) Celoron 
de: 46-47, 98, 116 

Bieville, Jean Baptiste le 
Moyne, Sieur de: 42 

Big Bone Lick: 116, 156; see 
Great Bone Lick 

Big Lick: 33 

Big Salt Lick: 284; see 
French Lick, French Salt 
Springs, Great French Lick, 
Great Salt Springs 

Black Fish, Schawano chief: 
adopts Daniel Boone, 274 

Bledsoe, Anthony: 194, 327, 
332, 339, 340, 341, 342, 344 

Bledsoe family: 123 

Bledsoe, Isaac: 126; discovers 
lick, 124 



Bledsoe's Lick: discovery of, 
described, 124-125 

Blevens : hunters named, 
109 

Blevens, William: 119 

Blount, William: 348 

Blowing Rock: 134 

Blue Licks: 156 

Blue Ridge: 3, 5, 97, 142 

Board of Trade: Johnston to, 
3; Glen to, 51; draft royal 
proclamation, 106 

Boiling Spring: 243, 253 

Bonn, Dr. Jacob: 85 

Boone, Anne: 23 

Boone, Daniel: 16, 20, 22, 29, 
38, 41, 101, 108, 110, 115, 
119, 129, 130, Ch. IX, 131, 
132, 133, 134, 142, 144, 148, 
153, 155, 156, 158, 159, 160, 
164, 165, 166, 185, 190, 200, 
212, 221, 225, 226, 227, 231, 
332, 235, 236, 280, 282; per- 
sonal appearance, 37; at 
Braddock's Defeat, 54-44; 
meets Richard Henderson, 
105; explores Tennessee for 
Henderson & Company, 109; 
serves under Waddell, 133; 
explores Kentucky for 
Richard Henderson, ch. X; 
clears Transylvania Trail, 
226; asks aid of Judge 
Henderson, 227-228; returns 
to Boonesborough, 253; res- 
cues daughter, 271; rescued 
by Kenton, 272; captured, 
272; adopted by Black Fish, 
274; deceived by Indians, 
274 



m% 



INDEX 



Boone family: settles in North 
Carolina, 34, 36, 117 

Boone, George: 21, 165 

Boone, James: 137 

Boone, Jemima: captured by 
Indians, 271 

Boone, Jesse: 137 

Boone, Squire: 21, 34, 35, 36, 
37, 105 

Boone, Squire, Jr.: 29, 142, 
156-157; sent by Transyl- 
vania Company to aid Dan- 
iel Boone, 153 

Boone, William: 23 

Boonesborough : 199, 215, 254, 
277; Henderson arrives at, 
235 ; Transylvania conven- 
tion at, 244-248; Boone re- 
turns to, 253; capture of 
girls at, 270-271; besieged 
by Indians, 272, 273, 274- 
276; Henderson returns to, 
282; corn sent from to 
French Lick, 284, 285 

Boone's Caves: 157 

Boone's Ford: 36 

Boston: 8, 180 

Botetourt; Governor, of Vir- 
ginia: 192 

Boyd's Creek: 307 

Braddock, Gen. Edward: 53, 
58, 135, 295; defeat of, de- 
scribed, 53-55 

Brandmiiller, John: pilgrim- 
age of, 14-15 

British: 49, 102, 189, 261, 270, 
276, 289, 290, 292, 294, 296, 
299, 302, 342; Crown, 191, 
200 

Brobdignags: 154 



Brown, Francis: 57 
Brown, Jacob: 194, 224 
Brown, the widow: 337 
Bryan family: 203 
Bryan, James: 22 
Bryan, Joseph: 22 
Bryan, Martha: 33 
Bryan, Morgan: 22, settled in 
Pennsylvania, 22, in Vir- 
ginia, 23; in North Carolina, 
16, 34, leads frontier rang- 
ers, 75-76, 83; in Rowan, 
35 
Bryan, Morgan, Jr.: 22 
Bryan, Rebeckah: 132, 160 
Bryan, William: 22, 33 
Bryan's Station: 22 
"Buffalo Bill" (W. F. Cody): 

XV 
Bull, Lieut. Gov. William: 88 
Bullitt, Capt. Thomas: 204 
Bullock, Leonard Henley: 
Member Transylvania Com- 
pany, 218 
Bunker's Hill: battle of, 277 
Burke, Edmund: on charters, 

XI 
Burnaby, Andrew: describes 

life in backwoods, 32 
Byrd, Col. William, 3rd.: 59, 
91, 92, 94, 133, 187, 208, 
210, 249 
Byrd, William: 36, 45, 98, 
130; describes Yadkin re- 
gion, 35 



Calhoun, Patrick: family at- 
tacked, 79; commands Pro- 



373 



INDEX 



vincial Rangers, 89; rela- 
tives of, 168 

Calk, William: 235; with ex- 
ploring party from Vir- 
ginia, 226 

Callaway, Elizabeth: captured 
by Indians, 271; rescued, 
271 

Callaway, Flanders: 271 

Callaway, Frances: capture 
by Indians, 271; rescued, 
271 

Callaway, Col. Richard: 253; 
commands in defence of 
Transylvania Fort, 275-276 

Callaway, Samuel: 110 

Camden: 292 

Camden, Lord Chancellor: 201 

Camden- Yorke opinion: 207, 
239, 240, 241 

Cameron, Alexander: 194, 261 

Camp Charlotte: 212 

Campbell, Col. Arthur: inter- 
ested in Kentucky lands, 
208; seeks partnership in 
Transylvania Company for 
Patrick Henry, 240; leads 
force against Cherokees, 
307; plans Greater Frank- 
lin, 323 

Campbell, Colonel William: 
leads Virginians, 293; 
elected commander King's 
Mountain expedition, 294; 
at King's Mountain, 296, 
299, 300 

Campbell, David: 314, 321 

Campbell, John: 263 

Campbell, Robert: scalped, 



Cape Fear: 53, 75 
Captain Will: 151 
Carlisle: 144 
Carolina: 116, 118 
Carolinas, the two: 75, 139, 

201 
Carter, John: 224 
Carter's Valley: 195, 224i 
Carteret, Lord: lands of, 9 
Caswell, Gov. Richard: 57, 

318, 322, 340 
Catawba Town: 59 
Catawba Valley: 10, 13 
Catawbas: 35, 45, 59-62, 64, 
65, 70, 71, 72, 96, 118, 146; 
towns of, 96; country, 131 
Cession Act: 310-311, 326 
Charles the Second: 42 
Charleston: 32, 33, 38, 66, 68, 

88, 94, 161, 167, 289 
Charleville ; Charles : at 

French Lick, 44 
Charlotte: 289, 294 
Cherokees: 15, 28, 49, 59-60, 
65, 67, 68, 70, 72, 73, 77, 78, 
86, 88, 89, 91, 96, 111, 112, 
114, 116, 123, 127, 133, 140, 
141, 159, 187, 192, 193, 202, 
206, 216, 221, 222, 225, 239, 
242, 249, 252, 265, 266, 270, 
290, 307, 310, 316, 331, 346; 
fort promised to, by South 
Carolina, 58; treaty with, 
59; hunters, 74; attack on 
Long Cane settlement, 79; 
warriors, 76; defeated, 83, 
265; boundary line, 191; 
chiefs, 217, 242, 316; coun- 
try of, 64 
Chickamaugas : 308; towns of, 



374* 



INDEX 



283; bloody forage of, 289- 
290; quelled, 290 

Chickasaws: 125, 310, 340 

Chilhowee: 307 

Chillicothe: 204. 

Chiswell's Mine: 112, 191 

Choctaws: 45 

Christian, Col. William: mem- 
ber of company to purchase 
Cherokee lands, 239; leads 
Virginia forces against 
Cherokees, 266 

Chronicle, Major William: 
killed at King's Mountain, 
301 

Clark, George Rogers: 255, 
259, 277; prospecting in 
Kentucky, 205; opinion of 
Transylvania title, 248 ; 
Memoir of, cited as to Hen- 
derson Claim, 255-256 ; 
threatens Virginia with re- 
volt in Kentucky, 257; vis- 
ited by James Robertson, 
281 

Clark, Jonathan: 248 

Cleveland, Col. Benjamin: 
296; explores West, 123; 
leads pioneers against In- 
dians, 267; leads Wilkes 
volunteers at King's Moun- 
tain, 293; addresses troops 
at King's Mountain, 297, 
301 

"Cleveland's Bulldogs": 293, 
301 

Clinch Valley: 203 

Cocke, William: 231, 263, 321; 
delegate from Franklin to 
Continental Congress, 318 ; 



appeals to Benjamin Frank- 
lin, 324 

Coldwater Expedition: 340 

Columbus, Christopher: 144, 
234 

Committee of Safety: 259 

Concord: 236 

Conewagoes: 118 

Connolly, Dr. John: 205, 208, 
209, 210, 239 

Constitution: rejected by 
North Carolina, 335, 336 

Continent, European: 4 

Continental Congress: 249, 
250, 257, 261, 276, 318, 319, 
324, 329 

Cooley, William: explores 
Kentucky, 149, 153 

Cooper, James Fenimore: 85, 
271 

Corbin, Francis: 169 

Cornstalk, Shawanoe chief: 
204; leads Indians at the 
Great Kanawha, 213-214 

Corn Tassel, Indian Chief: 
337 

Cornwallis, Lord Charles: 289, 
291, 292, 294, 295, 304 

Cortez, Hernando: 144 

Counties: Albemarle, 99; An- 
son, 16, 19, 32, 162, 167, 185; 
Armagh, 22; Augusta, 55, 
198; Berks, 34; Botetourt, 
204; Brunswick, 188; Bucks, 
8, 22, 34; Burke, 293; Ches- 
ter, 22-23; Culpeper, 138; 
Davidson, 343; Fincastle, 
220; Floyd, 142; Frederick, 
55; Granville, 160, 169, 170, 
179, 181, 218, 291; Greene, 



375 



INDEX 



312, 326; Guilford, 203; 
Hampshire, 55 ; Hanover, 
108; Jessamine, 157; Ken- 
tucky, 258; Lincoln, 126, 
234, 298; Mecklenburg, 2T, 
30, 171, 200, 245; Miller, 
205; Orange, North Caro- 
lina, 19, 25-26, 169, 177, 189; 
Orange, Virginia, 113, 122; 
Philadelphia, 34 ; Prince 
William, 226; Roanoke, 33; 
Rowan, 19, 34, 56, 147, 177, 
232, 294, 298; Rutherford, 
293; Shenandoah, 198; Sulli- 
van, 291, 308, 312, 328; 
Sumner, 124, 343; Surry, 40, 
166, 293, 298, 303; Tennes- 
see, 343; Washington, 132, 
277, 293, 312, 319, 336, 337; 
Wayne, 124; Wilkes, 293; 
York, Pennsylvania, 52, 
59; York, South Carolina, 
295 

Couture, Jean: 44 

Cowpens: 294 

Cox, Charles: 119 

Coytomore, Lieut.: murdered 
by Indians, 80 

Craighead, Rev. Alexander: 
30 

Crawford, William: Washing- 
ton to, on Western lands, 
106, 108 

Creeks: 308, 310, 339, 340, 341, 
342, 346 

Creeks: Bean Island, 85; 
Bear, 131; Beaver, 194; 
Bledsoe's, 128 ; Crooked, 
213; Cross, 218; Dutch- 
man's, 132; Elk, 137; Fish, 



205; Fourth, 57, 58; Line, 
71; Linville, 34; Lulbegrud, 
119, 154; Otter, 228, 229, 
236; Sinking, 328, 336; 
Sugar Tree, 132; Sugaw, 
59; Swearing, 135; Station 
Camp, 124, 150; Third, 57; 
Walden's, 120 

Cresap, Col. Thomas: 101 

Crockett, Robert: 125 

Croghan, George: 46, 120 

Cross Creek (Fayetteville) : 
218 

Crozat, Antoine: 43, 44 

Cullodan: 100 

Cumberland: Colony, 200, 341, 
342, 343; leaders, 341; de- 
sire alliance with Spain, 348, 
345; traders, 330; settle- 
ments, 283, 288, 309, 310, 
330, 340, 345, 346; settlers, 
328, 342; desire separation 
from North Carolina, 343; 
valley, 280; region, ch. 
XVII, 280, 345, 347 

Cumberland: outlaw, 165 

"Cumberland Compact" : 

drafted by Richard Hen- 
derson, 285-286 

Cumberland District: 331, 339, 
341 

Cumberland, Duke of: 100 

Cumberland Gap: names, 100, 
115; traversed by traders, 
118, 119, 121, 123, 124, 126, 
145, 158, 229; see Onasioto 
Ga<Q 

Cumberland Mountains: 100, 
113, 138, 233 

Cutbird, Benjamin: 139 



376 



INDEX 



D 



Darien: 144 

Dark and Bloody Ground: 
126; origin of name, 223- 
224 

Dartmouth, Earl of: 208, 209, 
238 

Dean Swift: 154 

Declaration of Independence: 
258; read at Boonesborough, 
272 

Delaware: 8; valley, 8 

Demere, Capt. Raymond: 76; 
takes command of Virginia 
Fort, 66; surrenders Fort 
Laudown, 90-91 

De Peyster: 298, 299, 301 

De Soto, Fernando: XII 

Detroit: 273 

Devonshire, East: 21 

Dick, Captain : Cherokee 
hunter, 126 

Dinwiddie, Gov. Robert: 50, 
53, 55, 58, 65, 67, 70, 72 

Dividing Line: running of the 
North Carolina- Virginia, 
269; William Byrd's His- 
tory of the, 35 

Doak, Rev. Samuel: 293 

Dobbs, Gov. Arthur: 55, 73, 
77, 92, 93, 169; sends com- 
missioner to treat with In- 
dians, 59; begins erection of 
Catawba Fort, 62, 70; or- 
ders building discontinued, 
71 

Dobbs, Edwards Brice: 54 

Doddridge, Joseph: on condi- 
tions of pioneer life, 125 

377 



Donelson, Col. John: 194, 206, 
222, 288; runs boundary 
line, 193; meets Richard 
Henderson, 269; leads party 
by water route to French 
Lick, 282; diary of, quoted, 
269, 283-284 

Donelson's line: 194, 224, 239, 
242 

Dragging Canoe, the Cherokee 
chief: 223, 290; leads In- 
dians in battle, 262-263 

Drake, Enoch: 235 

Drake, Joseph: 125 

Dunmore, John Murray, Earl 
of: 196, 198, 199, 200, 204, 
206, 210, 211, 220, 238, 239, 
240, 241, 242, 248, 249, 
254 

Dunmore's War: ch. XIII, 
196, 214 

Dugger, Julius Caesar: Ten- 
nessee pioneer, 137, 187 

Dutch, Pennsylvania: 12, 302 

Dutchman's Creek Church : 
185 

E 

East India Company: 201 
Eaton's Station: defence of, 

262 
Echota: 64, 66, 307 
Edwards, Rev. Morgan: on 

exodus of Regulators for 

North Carolina, 175 
Emery, Will: 127 
England: land-mad, XI; 4, 21, 

43, 201, 247 
English: 67, 120, 274; settlers, 



INDEX 



5, 96; Revolution, 6; parlia- 
ment, 7; colonies, 13; troops, 
66; settlements, 46 

Es-Kippa-Ki-Thi-Ki: 117, 150 

Etchowee: 89 

F 

Fagot: 343 

Falls of the Ohio River 
(Louisville) : 255, 284 

Fanning, Col. Edmund: 22, 
172, 173, 176, 177, 180, 182 

Fauquier, Gov. Francis: 94 

Fayetteville: 218 

Ferguson, Col. Patrick: 291, 
292, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299, 
300; conduct at King's 
Mountain, 302; killed, 303 

Few, William: describes life 
in backwoods, 25 

Fields, Jeremiah: 180, 181 

Filson, John: 117, 147 

Fincastle, Committee of West: 
drafts protest against Tran- 
sylvania Company, 257, 258 

Findlay, Findley, Finley: 
Archibald, 22; Michael, 22 

Findlay, John: visits Ken- 
tucky, 117-118; meets 
Boone, 144; visits Boone on 
the Yadkin, 22, 101, 138, 
148, 149, 150, 153 

Fish, William: murdered by 
Indians, 84 

Fleming, Col. William: 208 

Florida: 138; East, 122, 138; 
West, 122 

Floyd, John: 212, 243, 254; 
appointed Surveyor General 
of Transylvania, 255 



Fontaine, John: journal of, 97 

Fontainebleau : 212 

Forbes, Gen. John: 73, 74, 133 

Forks of Ohio River: 47 

Forts: Bethabara, at, 75; 
Boone's, 236, 270; chain of, 
83; Carolina, 75, 84-85; Ca- 
tawba, 62, 70, 71; Cumber- 
land, 53; Dobbs, 55, 57-58, 
75, 80-82, 84, 87; Duquesne, 
47, 72-73, 74; Dutch, 57, 83, 
86; — at mouth of Line 
Creek, 71; Loudoun, 68, 76, 
88-90; McDowell's, 265, 270; 
Necessity, 48; Ninety-Six, 
89; Patrick Henry, 269, 
282-283; Pitt, 121, 209; 
Prince George, 51-52, 79-80, 
91, 93, 94; Robinson, 94; 
Stalnaker's, 83, 94; Stanwix, 
treaty of, 111, 112, 191, 
207;— on Tellico River, 68; 
Transylvania, 215, 243, 244, 
245, 253, 270, 272, 274, 276, 
282; Vaux's, 56, 69; Vir- 
ginia, 64, 67, 68, 69; Wa- 
tauga, 263 

Fowey: 254 

France: 43, 78, 96, 99 

Frankland: 318, 331, 339; ori- 
gin of name, 314, 321 

Franklin: 89 

Franklin, Benjamin: 8, 107, 
184, 185; new state named 
for, 314, 324; to Cocke, 324; 
to Sevier, 324-325 

Franklin, State of: 200, ch. 
XIX, 315, 317, 318, 323, 325, 
326, 328, 329, 334, 335, 336, 
337, 338, 344, 347, 348;— 



378 



INDEX 



leaders of, 326, 330;— legis- 
lature of, 312, 313-314, 316, 
318;— Greater, 323; origin 
of name, 314, 324 

Freeland's Station: 309 

French: 45, 47, 48, 49, 65, 66, 
70, 97, 116, 274; coureurs 
de bois, 44; Huguenot, 198; 
voyageurs, 123, 128; — Cana- 
dian, 274; immigration of, 
5; settlers, 28; traders, 44; 
explorations, 46 

French Lick: 281; treaty of 
peace at, 269. See French 
Salt Springs, Great French 
Lick, Great Salt Springs 

French and Indian War: 52, 
102, 144, 145 

Frohock, John: 172, 177 

Frohock, Thomas: 172, 177 

Frontier: VII 



G 



Galaspy, William: 234 
Galissoniere, Roland Michel 

Barrin, Marquis de la: 47 
Gammern: storekeeper on 

Yadkin, 161 
Gardoqui, Diego de: 327, 329, 

330, 331, 332, 333, 334, 335, 

338, 339 
Gee, Joshua: 98 
George I: 97 
George III: 93, 214 
Georgia: 116, 122, 265, 268, 

291, 313;— Assembly of, 

344; tours into, 14 
German: pioneers, 11-18, 28; 



— Palatinate, 11; immigra- 
tion, 5, 11-12, 19 

Gilbert Town: 292 

Gillespie, Robert: slain from 
ambush by Indians, 87 

Gist, Christopher: 46, 108, 114, 
116, 117, 137, 146; makes 
exploration for Ohio Com- 
pany, 101-102 

Gist, Nathaniel: 134, 137 

Glen, Governor James: 58-59, 
65; describes South Caro- 
lina's condition, 50-51; 
promises Cherokees a fort, 
51; concludes treaty at Sa- 
luda, 51 

Glumdelick : 154 

Gnadenhutten: 56 

Gordon, Capt. Harry: 120 

Grandfather Mountain: 135 

Grant, Col. James: 138; leads 
expedition against Indians, 
93 

Granville, Edward, Earl of 
Clarendon, Lord: 15; lands 
of, 9-10, 34, 171 

Great Bone Licks: 120 

Great Britain: 48, 247 

Great French Lick: 280. See 
Great Salt Springs, French 
Lick, French Salt Springs 

Great Grant: 224 

Greathouse, Darmel: 211 

Great Meadows: 48, 53 

Great Mogul: 201 

Great Tellico: 65 

Great Trading Path: 35, 45, 
96, 131 

Great Treaty: 249 

Great Salt Springs: 44, 269. 



379 



INDEX 



See French Lick, French 

Salt Springs, Great French 

Lick 
Great Warrior's Path: 118, 

119 
Green: 62 
Greeneville: 319 
Greer, Andrew: 187 
Grube, Rev. Bernhard Adam: 

heads settlers into North 

Carolina, 16 
Gulf of Mexico: 42, 44, 341 
"Gulliver's Travels": 154 
Gutry, John: 52 

H 

Hackett: 341 

Hall, Gen. William: 116, 128 

Hall, Rev. James: 267 

Hambright, Lt. Col. Freder- 
ick: at King's Mountain, 
296, 302 

Hamilton, Gov. Henry: 273, 
274, 276 

Hampton, Anthony : leads 
Rowan rangers, 83 

Hampton, Col. Andrew: leads 
Rutherford riflemen, 293 

Hampton, Gen. Wade: 83 

Hancock, John: 241 

Hanks: family, 23, 34;— Abra- 
ham, 23, 235 

Hard Labor: treaty at, 112, 
114 

Harman, outlaw: 165 

Harris, Col.: 75 

Harris: Elizabeth, 144; John, 
145 

Harris's Ferry: 145 



Harrisburg: 145 
Harrison, Richard: 255 
Harrod, James: 121, 205, 212, 

243, 244, 253. 
Harrodsburg : 253 ; election 

held at; 257 
Harrodsburg Remonstrance: 

255 
Hart: David, 187, 218;— Na- 
thaniel, 108, 187, 217, 218, 
222, 227, 284;— Thomas, 108, 
187, 218, 222 
Hartman, George: 38 
Hawkins, Benjamin: 268 
Hayes: 347 
Haywood, John: 314 
Hempinstall, Abraham: 122 
Henderson, Kentucky: 279 
Henderson, Col. Samuel : 
chosen special envoy to 
Franklin, 315-316; negoti- 
ates with John Sevier, 316- 
318 
Henderson, Nathaniel: 222, 

233, 255 
Henderson, Richard: born in 
Virginia, 104; removes to 
North Carolina, 104; ac- 
quainted with Boones, 105; 
promotes Western explora- 
tion, 110; in law suits in- 
volving Boone, 147; pro- 
motes Western exploration 
under Boone's leadership, 
148-149; sends supplies to 
Boone, 153; court broken 
up by Regulators, 179-181; 
burned out by Regulators, 
182; secures from English 
authorities sanction for pur- 



380 



INDEX 



chase of Indian lands, 201- 
202; reorganizes Richard 
Henderson & Co. into 
Louisa Company, 217; visits 
Otari towns, 217-218; or- 
ganizes Transylvania Com- 
pany, 218-219 ; negotiates 
Great Treaty with Chero- 
kees, 221-225 ; despatches 
Boone to clean Transylva- 
nia Trail, 225-226; receives 
urgent appeal from Boone, 
227-229; hastens to Boone's 
rescue, 229-232 ; reaches 
Fort Boone, 236; draws up 
plan of government for 
Transylvania, 243-244; ad- 
dresses Legislature of Tran- 
sylvania, 237, 245; elected 
delegate from Transylvania 
to Continental Congress, 
249; prepares plan of gov- 
ernment for Powell's Valley 
settlement, 252 ; attends 
Virginia Convention, 256- 
257; purchases corn for 
Cumberland settlement, 269 
runs North Carolina- Vir 
ginia dividing line, 269, 282 
presents memorial on Tran 
sylvania purchase, 278 
plans colonization of Cum 
berland region, 279-280 
despatches Robertson on 
prospecting tour, 280-281 
sends corn to French Lick 
284-285 ; organizes govern- 
ment on Cumberland, 285 
author of "Cumberland 
Compact," 286-287; intro- 



duces recall of judges, 286- 
287; founder of Nashville/ 
personal appearance, 221- 
222; diary of, quoted, 227, 
229; mentioned, 158, 159, 
183, 187, 190, 200, 203, 215, 
ch. XIV passim, 216, 220, 
234, 235, 238, 240, 241, 242, 
246, 247, 248, 253, 258, 272, 
282, 315 

Henderson, Richard & Com- 
pany: organized, 107; des- 
patch Boone on Western 
exploration, 109, 160, 216- 
217; granted 200,000 acres 
by Virginia; see Land 
Companies 

Henderson, Samuel: 104 

Henderson & Company; 109; 
see Richard Henderson Q 
Company 

Henley, Chief Justice Peter: 
60 

Henry, Patrick: 209, 211, 249, 
293, 329; pronounces Cam- 
den- Yorke decision valid, 
210; endeavors to purchase 
lands from Cherokees, 239- 
240; desires to become part- 
ner in Transylvania Com- 
pany, 240; considers Tran- 
sylvania title good, 256; 
confiscates Transylvania, 
258; correspondence of, 
with Joseph Martin, 344- 
345 

Hewatt, Rev. Alexander: 78 

Heydt, Jost: settles in Vir- 
ginia, 12 

Heygler, King, Catawba chief: 



381 



INDEX 



petitions for fort, 60; pre- 
vents completion of fort, 
71; see Oroloswa 

Hiawassee: 307 

Hicks, Harry: heroic defence 
of home against Indian at- 
tack, 85-86 

High Shoals: 29 

Highlanders: 90 

Hill, William: 138, 142, 143 

Hillsborough: 26, 103, 179, 
188, 217, 218, 219 

Hillsborough, Earl of: 96 

Hingham: 2.2 

Hogg, James: 251; partner 
in Transylvania Company, 
218 ; appointed delegate 
from Transylvania to Con- 
tinental Congress, 250 

Holder, John: rescues sweet- 
heart, 271 

Holden, Joseph: 149, 153 

Hollows, the: 166 

Holston: region, 99, 126; set- 
tlement, 281 ;— settlers, 262; 
valley of, 134, 187, 191-192, 
306 

Honeycut: 189 

Hooper, William: 180, 182 

Hopewell: 310 

Horton, Joshua: 121 

Houston, Rev. Samuel: 321, 
323; drafts constitution for 
Frankland, 319; features of 
constitution t drafted by, 
321-322 

Howard, Cornelius: 165, 166 

Howell, Rednup: poet-laure- 
ate of the Regulation, 173, 
179 



Hubbardt, Col. James: 316 

Hudson Valley: 4 

Hunter, James: 179 

Hunter's Trail: 150 

Husband, Herman: author of 
"Impartial Relation," 177, 
178, 197; leader in insur- 
rection at Hillsborough, 
179; in correspondence with 
Benjamin Franklin, 184 



Iberville, Le Moyne d': 42-43 
Illinois Company: see Land 

Companies 
Illinois country: 120, 128, 281 
"Impartial Relation": 177, 197 
Indian: agent, 281; — Allies, 
72; chiefs, 211, 217, 274, 
337; — depredations, 56, 163, 
308, 340;— expeditions, 313; 
governments, 201 ; Grant, 
202; hostages, 80; — lands, 
161, 308;— outbreak, 74, 
262 ; — princes, 201 ; — terri- 
tories, 200;— towns, 76, 89, 
93, 117, 290, 307, 308;— 
trade, 44-46, 145 ;— traders, 
144, 145, 217, 225;— trails, 
119, 139;— tribes, 45, 201, 
261 ;— war, 325 ; — warfare, 
133, 295-296, 297 ;— affairs, 
superintendent of, 111 
Indians: 44, 46, 49, 57, 58-63, 
68, 69, 74, 75, 85, 86, 87, 88, 
112, 119, 122, 125, 127, 1.40, 
151, 152, 156, 162, 196, 197, 
200, 204, 205, 207, 209, 211, 
213, 214, 215, 217, 218, 221, 



382 



INDEX 



222, 223, 227, 228, 229, 240, 
242, 249, 252, 253, 261, 262, 
263, 265, 267, 268, 270, 273, 
275, 276, 283, 288, 290, 297, 
306, 307, 308, 311, 332, 339, 
340, 345;— Northern, 49, 
111, 141, 191 ;— Southern, 
35, 191, 261 

Indiana: 123 

Ingles: John, 69; — Mrs. Mary, 
69; — William, 69; — Mrs. 
William, 69 

Innes, Col. James: 53 

Ireland, 7, 22, 33; character 
of inhabitants of North of, 
6-7 

Irish: immigration of, 5; — 
Pennsylvania, 33 ; settlers, 
28 

Iroquois: 117 



Jack, Col. Samuel: 265 

Jackson, Andrew: 282 

Jacobite uprising: 7 

Jamestown: 6 

Jay, John: 329-330 

Jefferson, Thomas: desires to 
join Transylvania Company, 
240; favors free government 
back of Virginia, 250-251; 
attitude of, toward Transyl- 
vania claim, 256 

Jenkins, Leoline: on charac- 
ter of Scotch-Irish, 6 

Johnson, Sir William: 112 

Johnston, Gov. Gabriel: on im- 
migration into North Caro- 
lina, 3 



Johnston, Gov. Samuel: 332, 
336, 338, 339; to Robertson 
and Bledsoe, 327 

Johnston, William: 217 

Jones, John Gabriel: 257 

Jones, Robert (Robin): 169; 
characterization of Scotch- 
Irish by, 24-25 

Jonesborough: 292, 312, 313, 
316, 337 

Joseph, Miller: describes con- 
ditions of North Carolina 
backwoods, 36, 38 

Judge's Friend, Cherokee 
chief: 242 



K 

Kenedy, William: agent for 
Virginia gentlemen to pur- 
chase Cherokee lands, 240 

Kenton, Simon: rescues Dan- 
iel Roone, 272 

Kentucky (Cantucky, Can- 
tuckey, Cantuckie, Can- 
tuck): XV, 22, 100, 101, 
102, 107, 111, 112, 116, 119, 
120, 121, 122, 123, 121, 129, 
137, 139, 140, 142, 113, 145, 
146, 148, 149, 150, 153, 155, 
156, 191, 196, 200, 203, 204, 
205, 221, 223, 224, 227, 229, 
231, 233, 234, 235, 256, 259, 
269, 270, 273, 276, 277, 279, 
315, 327, 335, 341, 342, 348, 
349; origin of name, 117; — 
road, 332 

Keowee: 51; — valley of, 89 

King's Mountain: 295, 303 



383 



INDEX 



King's Mountain campaign: 

306, 348 
Kipling, Rudyard: 137 
Kirk: 337 

Kirtleys, the: pioneers, 113 
Knob Lick: 126 



Lacey, Col. William: 293, 296 

Land: policy of selling large 
tracts of, 113 

Land Companies: Illinois, 
207-208, 239; Louisa, 217, 
218; Loyal, 47, 99-100, 113; 
Ohio, 47; organized, 100; 
sends out exploring expe- 
dition, 101-103; Richard 
Henderson & Company, or- 
ganized, 107 ; Transylvania 
Company, 114, 218; Wabash 
(Onabache), 209, 238-239 

Land of Cockayne: 44 

La Salle, Robert Cavelier de: 
42 

Laurel Mountain: 119 

"Leatherstocking Tales": 85, 
271 

Leestown: 248 

Lewes: 8 

Lenoir (Le Noir), Gen. Wil- 
liam: describes costume of 
pioneer women, 40-41 ; 
marches against Indians; at 
King's Mountain, 301-302 

Lery, Chaussegros de: 116 

Lewis, Major Andrew: 66-67, 
81, 191, 208; erects Virginia 
Fort, 64-65; leads Sandy 
River expedition, 70; com- 



mands at Battle of Great 

Kanawha, 212, 214-215 
Lexington: 236 

Lincoln : family, 34 ; — Abra- 
ham, 23, 34, 235; John, 34; 

— Mordecai, 22-23, 34; Sam- 
uel, 22;— Sarah, 23 
Lindsay, Isaac, 121 
Linville: John, 140, 142; Capt. 

William, 137, 140, 142 
Linville Falls: 136, 141 
Lockaber: 192, 193 
Locke, John: "Fundamental 

Constitutions" of, 202 
Loesch, Brother: 75 
Logan, Cayuga Mingo chief: 

211 
Logan, Col. Benjamin: 234, 

277 
Logan, James: on character 

of squatters, 8-9 
London: 202 
Loudoun, Lord: 68 
Long Cane Settlement: 79 
Long Hunters: XII, ch. VIII, 

126, 128, 129, 157, 158, 204 
Long Island of Holston 

River: 94, 194, 195, 226, 266, 

278, 308 
Long, John: slain by Indians, 

87 
Long Knives: 213 
Longueuil, Charles de Moyne, 

Baron de: 116 
Lorbulgrud: 154 
Louis Quatorze: 43 
Louisa Company: see Land 

Companies 
Louisiana: 292, 331 
Love, Col.: 266 



384 



INDEX 



Lower Blue Licks: 101 
Lower Salt Spring: 273 
Lower Shawnee Town: 101 
Lowry, James: 118 
Loyal Company: see Land 

Companies 
Loyalists: 190, 261, 291, 298, 

299 
Lucas, Robert: 224 
Luhny, Robert, mill of, on 

James River, 16 
Luttrell, Col. John: 227; joins 

Transylvania Company, 217 
Lyttelton, Gov. William 

Henry: 65-66, 71, 77, 78, 88 



M 

Madison, Thomas: 263 

Madrid: 341, 342 

Mansfield, Low: 201 

Mansker, Gasper, pioneer: 
123, 282; discovers lick, 124; 
encounters Boone, 157-158 

Mansker's Lick: 110, 124 

Margry, Pierre: 43 

Martin, Gov. Alexander: 182, 
312, 315, 316, 322; attorney 
for Daniel Boone, 148; ap- 
points Samuel Henderson 
ambassador to Franklin, 
315; issues manifesto 
against State of Franklin, 
306, 318; Sevier to, on 
Franklin, 317-318; academy 
named for, 318 

Martin, Col. Joseph: 150, 227, 
262, 290, 306, 307, 313, 322, 
325; settles in Powell's Val- 



ley, 113; driven out, 114: 
appointed agent for Tran- 
sylvania Company, 202 ; 
Richard Henderson to, 252- 
253; letter of, to Governor 
Randolph, 326 ; exonerated 
of treason by North Caro- 
lina Assembly, 344; acts as 
spy on Spaniards, 344-345 

Martin, Gov. Josiah: 103, 200; 
issues proclamation against 
Transylvania Company, 238 

Martin's Station: 226, 229; 
founded, 220-221; Hender- 
son draws up plan of gov- 
ernment for, 252; brave de- 
fence of, against Indians, 
253 

Maryland: 5, 14, 24, 101, 114; 
price of lands in, 9 

Mason, George: opposed tp 
Transylvania claim, 256 

Maxwell, Col. George: 328, 332 

McAden, Rev. Hugh: diary 
of, 27-28, 49, 69 

McAfees: 243; exploring 
party, 204; return home, 
235; — James, 235;— Robert, 
235; Robert, Jr., 235; Sam- 
uel, 235; William, 235 

McBride, James: 117 

McCulloch, Major John: 122 

McCulloh, Henry Eustace : 
172 

McDowell, Col.: 265 

McDowell, Col. Charles: 291, 
293, 337 

McDowell, Col. Joseph: 293, 
296, 298, 337 

McDowell, Thomas: 228 



385 



INDEX 



McFeters, Jeremiah: 228 

McGillivray, Alexander: 339, 
342, 344, 345; receives over- 
tures from Cumberland 
leaders, 341 

Mendenhall: John, 203;— 
Richard, 203 

Middle Ground: 111 

Middle Settlements: 93 

Middleton, Col. Thomas: 93 

Middle Towns: 89 

Middle West: 117 

Millerstpwn: 198 

Miro, District of: 343, 346 

Miro, Gov. Estevan: 331, 335, 
338, 339, 341, 342, 343, 344, 
345; reports on separatist 
movement in West, 342 

Mississippi Bubble: 43 

Mohawk Valley: 4 

Monbrenn, Timothe de: hunts 
on Cumberland, 128 

Monongahela: 205 

Montagu, Lord Charles: 168- 
169 

Montgomerie, Col. Archibald: 
abortive campaign of, 
against Indians, 88-89 ; 
sails, 92 

Montreal: 118 

Mooney, James : explores 
Kentucky, 149, 153 

Moore: 62 

Moravian: church, 1, 3, 88- 
89, 166; — community diary, 
88; — brotherhood, 15-16; — 
town, 56; Gemein Haus, 
87; — store-keeper, 161 

Moravians: 166; eleven killed, 
56; warned against Indians, 



85; hospitable to Indians, 
86 
Morgan family: 34; — Edward, 
21; Sarah, 21, 34;— Richard, 
34 
Morganton: 337, 338 
Morris, Gov. Samuel: 54 
Morrison: 337 
Mount Mitchell: 135 
Mulberry Fields: 15, 163 
Miiller, Adam: settles in Vir- 
ginia, 12 
Murray, William: 207, 208, 
238, 239 

N 

Nantahala Mountains: 267 
Nash, Gen. Francis: 177, 288 
Nashborough: 309 
Nashville: 282, 342, 345 
Nassau Hall: 27, 267 
Natchez: 123, 125, 330 
Neely, Alexander: 153, 154 
Neilson, Archibald: 219 
Nelson, Acting Governor Wil- 
liam: 96, 188 
Newcastle: 8 
New England: 4, 86 
New Jersey: 5 
"Newlanders": 11 
Newman, hunter: 119 
Newman's Ridge: 119 
New Orleans: 123, 343, 345 
New River: region, 123, 126; 
— settlement, 69 ; — settlers, 
70 
"Nolichucky Jack of the Bor- 
der": 332 
Nolichucky: Valley, 224 



386 



INDEX 



North America: 120, 202 

North Carolina: XV, 5, 10, 
13, 14, 15, 43, 52, 55, 59, 71, 
73, 84, 99, 101, 107, 116, 130, 
134, 136, 140, 160, 162, 163, 
167, 174, 175, 176, 186, 187, 
188, 191, 192, 193, 194, 197, 
200, 203, 218, 219, 220, 221, 
222, 237, 238, 245, 259, 260, 
261, 265, 269, 277, 278, 279, 
280, 281, 282, 288, 289, 290, 
291, 295, 304, 305, 307, 310, 
311, 312, 313, 317, 319, 322, 
323, 324, 325, 326, 328, 330, 
332, 335, 339, 343, 344, 345, 
3-16, 347; frontier conditions 
in, 25-28;— border, 76;— 
back country, 261 ; grants 
lands in Tennessee to Tran- 
sylvania Company, 287; im- 
migration into, 10, 13; in- 
crease in population of, 3, 
11; — piedmont, 9, 26; — ■ 
hunters, 141; pioneers, 95; 
governor of, 60; commis- 
sioners of, 310; troops, 53, 
72, 77, 89, 93, 94, 266, 273; 
cedes Western territory to 
United States, 347; legisla- 
ture of, passes second ces- 
sion act, 347; — lands ac- 
cepted by Congress, 348 

North Carolina Assembly: 57- 
58, 61, 92, 93, 277, 313, 314, 
338, 343 

North Carolina : Provincial 
Congress of, 259, 277; Pro- 
vincial Council of, 260, 265, 
266 

Northwest: 259, 261, 270, 277 



Nottaway Indians: 72 
Nuntewees: 65 

O 

Oconostota, Cherokee chief: 
242; treacherously murders 
Lieut. Coytomore, 79-80 

Ohio Company: see Land 
Companies 

Ohio Indians: 46 

Ohio Valley: 102, 145 

Old Abraham: 263 

Old Chillicothe: 212 

Old Southwest: 104, 126, 195, 
198, 212, 226, 260, 265, 305, 
309, 348; pioneers of, XV, 
5, 12, 14, 17, 28-31 ; pioneer 
democracy of, 20-21, 103- 
104; — planter aristocracy 
of, 20; — Mimic republics of, 
200; — colonizers of, 20 

Ormond, Duke of: to Leoline 
Jenkins, 6 

Oroloswa, Catawba Chief: 71, 
see King Heygler 

Osborne, Captain Alexander: 
leads Rowan militia, 62 

Otari towns: 217 

Ouasioto Gap: 118, 145, 146, 
150; see Cumberland Gap 

Outassitus, Cherokee chief: 91 

Overton, Samuel: 239 

Owen, William: 163, 164, 165 

Oxford: 249 



Pacific Ocean: 144 
Page, John: 239 



387 



INDEX 



Paintsville: 100 

Paris: 43 

Path Deed: 224 

Paxtong: 145 

Pearis, Capt. Richard: 70 

Peck, John M.: 148 

Penn, William: 8, 21, 22 

Pennsylvania: 5, 10, 13, 27, 
33, 45, 54, 99, 118, 144, 209, 
277; population of, 8; lands, 
9; immigrants into, 12; 
Synod, 13 ;— settlers, 146; 
Proprietaries of, 111: 
traders, 146, 207 

Pensacola: 138, 139 

Perkins, John: defeats In- 
dians by strategy, 83-84 

Phifer, Martin: leads frontier 
rangers, 83 

Philadelphia: 8, 32, 123, 185, 
249, 250 

Pilot Knob: 102, 118, 119 

Pilot Mountain: 135 

Piomingo, Chickasaw chief: 
125 

Pioneer: farmer, IX; pro- 
moter, XI 

Pittsburgh: 122 

"Pocahontas of the West": 
262; see Nancy Ward 

Point Pleasant: 213 

Polk, Thomas: 172 

Ponce de Leon: XII 

Portwood, age: 232 

Post St. Vincent: 281 

Pound Gap: 102 

Powell's Mountain: 224 

Powell's Valley: 113, 114, 149, 
203, 224, 252; lands in, 
granted to Transylvania 



Company, 287-288 

Presbyterians: in Ireland, 7; 
—Scotch-Irish, 27 

Preston, Col. William: 208, 
212, 240; to Lord Dunmore 
on Henderson's offers of 
land, 220; to George Wash- 
ington on Transylvania, 
237-238, 242-243;— supports 
Judge Henderson, 254 

Price, Thomas, Indian trader: 
guides Henderson at Hart 
to Otari towns, 217; testi- 
fies regarding Great Treaty, 
225 

Price's Meadow: 124 

Privy Council: 206 

"Proposals for the encourage- 
ment of settling the lands, 
etc.": issued by Transylva- 
nia Company, 219, 220 

Puritan: 86 



Q 



294 



Quaker Meadows: 

Quakers: 20-21 

Quebec: 212 

Quindre, Dagniaux de: com- 
mands at siege of Transyl- 
vania Fort, 274-276 

R 

Rains, John: 123 

Randolph, Col. Peter: treaty 
commissioner, 59 

Recall of Judges: early ex- 
ample, 286-287 

Red Lick Fork: 150 



388 



INDEX 



Regulation: 167, 173, 174, 175, 
176, 182, 192 

Regulators: ch. XI, 166, 167, 
168, 175, 176, 177, 179, 180, 
181, 183, 185, 190 

Reid, Capt. Mayne: 282 

Revere, Paul: 231 

Richard Henderson & Com- 
pany: 119, 129, 138; organ- 
ized, 107; despatch Boone 
on exploring expedition, 
109; granted land by Vir- 
ginia, 279. See Land Com- 
panies 

Richter: 166 

Rivers: Big Sandy, west fork 
of, 142; Broad, 59, 289; Ca- 
tawba, 62, 70, 83, 84;— 
South fork of, 298; Chatta- 
hoochee, 266; Cherokee, 111, 
121; Clinch, 142; Cumber- 
land, 44, 109, 114, 119, 121, 
128, 157, 223, 224, 269, 284, 
288, 308; Dick's, 126, 156; 
Great Kanawha, 107, 112, 
191, 192, 193; Guen, 151, 157, 
188, 279, 294; Hiwassee, 332; 
Holston, 142, 192, 194, 195, 
224, 283; Illinois, 207; 
James, 16, 96-97; Kentucky, 
156, 159, 212, 236, 242, 248, 
253, 284; Licking, 156; Lit- 
tle Tennessee, 65, 307; 
Louisa, 149, 193; Meho, 163; 
Miami, 102; Mississippi, 42, 
102, 139, 155, 259, 329, 330, 
343; Muskingum, 102; New, 
224 ; Nonachunbreh, Noli- 
chuetry, 194, 197; Ohio, 42, 
44, 45, 100, 107, 116, 117, 



121, 122, 142, 151, 156, 191, 
192, 193, 207, 213, 279;— 
falls of the, 255, 284;— forks 
of the, 47; Opeckon, 12; 
Pacolet, 76; Potomac, 122; 
Red, 119, 153, 154; Reedy, 
112, 191; Roanoke, 69; 
Rockcastle, 100, 155; Scioto, 
102; Shenandoah, 17; 
Stone's, 121 ; Swannanoa, 
136; Tellico, 68; Tennessee, 
44, 58, 121, 191, 283, 290; 
Trinity, 42; Tugaloo, 266; 
Twelve Mile, 89; Wabash, 
123; Washita, 122; Wa- 
tauga, 197, 219, 221, 224, 293 

Robertson, Charles: 224 

Robertson, James: 188, 189, 
190, 196, 197, 200, 222, 260, 
263, 287, 309, 327, 332, 339, 
340, 341, 342, 344, 347; leads 
scouting party for Transyl- 
vania Company, 280-281 ; 
guides party to French 
Lick, 282; joined by Donel- 
son and party, 284; names 
Mir6 District, 343; desires 
union with Spain, 343; seeks 
separation of Cumberland 
from North Carolina, 345; 
to Miro on separatist move- 
ment, 346 

Robinson, John: 69 

Rochelle: 43 

Rocky Mountains: 135 

Rogers, Sergt.: 73 

Rogersville: 290 

Roan Mountain: 135 

Round-O, Cherokee chief: 79 — 

Rowan, Matthew: 19, 76 



389 



INDEX 



Rowan rangers: 83; described, 
82-83 

Rowan: settlers murdered, 77, 
265 

Rucker, Capt.: 113 

Rutherford, Gen. Griffith: 
leads Rowan rangers, 76, 
83; leads rescuing force, 
265, 270; leads army against 
Cherokees, 267 

Russell, Capt. William: 203 



Saint Augustine: 138 

Saint Lusson, Daumont de: 
41-42 

Salem: 87 

Salisbury: 34, 38, 59, 146, 148, 
162, 165, 166, 168, 172, 289 

Sailing, John Peter: 117 

San Salvador: 144 

Sandy Creek Association: 175, 
184, 185, 190 

Sandy River expedition: 70 

Sapona Town: 35 

Sault Ste. Marie: 41 

Savannah: 51 

Savannah Indians: 65 

Scaggs, Charles: 126 

Scaggs, Henry: 282; meets 
Daniel Boone, 109; agent 
for Richard Henderson & 
Co., 109-110; explores Cum- 
berland region, 119; leads 
Long Hunters into Ken- 
tucky, 125-126 

Scaggs' Ridge: 120 

Schnell, Leonard: pilgrimage 
of, 14-15 



Scotch Lowlands: 6 

Scotch-Irish: 7, 11, 27, 33, 188; 
in Pennsylvania, 8; — immi- 
gration of, 5, 19 ; settlers, 28 

Scotchman: 218 

Scotland: 217 

Scovil: 168 

Searcy: connection, 190; Reu- 
ben, 169; Valentine, 222 

Settiquo: 76, 307, 316 

Sevier, James: emissary of 
Franklin to Miro, 337-338 

Sevier, John: 200, 222, 260, 
298, 313-314, 322, 325, 326, 
327, 330, 337, 344, 347; early 
life, 198; defends Watauga 
Fort, 263; rescues Bonny 
Kate Sherrill, 264; with 
Shelly plans King's Moun- 
tain campaign, 292, 296; de- 
feats Indians, 307-308; dis- 
avows revolutionary intent, 
315; elected Governor of 
Franklin, 317; writes de- 
fiant letter to Caswell, 323- 
324; appeals to Benjamin 
Franklin, 324; besieges Tip- 
ton, 330; attacks Indians, 
331-332; writes Gardoqui, 
offering to "deliver" Frank- 
lin to Spain, 333-335; ar- 
rested for high treason, im- 
prisoned, 337; rescued, 338; 
restored to office by North 
Carolina, 338; elected first 
governor of Tennessee, 348 

Shawanoes, Shawnese: 25, 44, 
69, 117, 151, 203, 205, 209, 
271;— chief of, 204 

Shelby, Col. Evan: leads force 



390 



INDEX 



against Chickamaugas, 290; 
appointed brigadier-gen- 
eral, 322 

Shelby, Isaac: 222, 291, 298; 
at Battle of Great Ka- 
nawha, 213-214; initiates 
King's Mountain campaign, 
292; at King's Mountain, 
301 ; elected first governor 
of Kentucky, 348 

Shelby, Capt. James: 263 

Shenandoah Valley: 10, 34 

Sherrill, Katherine: rescued 
by John Sevier, 264 

Silonee, Cherokee chief: 79; 
checks Montgomerie, 89; see 
Young Warrior of Estatoe 

Sims, George: writes A Seri- 
ous Address, etc., 160, 169, 
170 

Simms, William Gilmore: 144 

Six Nations: 111, 191 

Slaughter: 138 

Slaughter, Col. Thomas: 244 

Smith, Capt. John: 69 

Smith, Gen. Daniel: 343, 344 

Smith, James: 121 

Smith, John, Jr.: 69 

Smith, William Bailey: 222; 
carries corn to French Lick, 
284 

Smith's Bridge: 89 

Smyth, J. F. D.: describes 
North Carolina backwoods- 
men, 39-40 

South Carolina: XV, 14, 27- 
28, 43, 45, 58, 66, 68, 71, 112, 
121, 139, 167, 192, 237, 262, 
265, 268, 291, 294, 295, 305, 
313; rangers, 89; traders, 71 



South Fork of Catawba River, 

62, 70;— Boys, 298, 301 
South Sea: XI, 42 
South Sea Islands: 219 
Southwest: see Old Southwest 
Southwest Territory: 348 
Southern Department: 111, 

331 
Spach: 166 

Spain: ch. XX, 330, 331, 332, 
337, 338, 339, 340, 344, 345, 
347 
Spangenberg, Bishop Augus- 
tus Gottlieb: makes explor- 
ing tour, 13, 14, 131; 
preaches at Bathama, 87 
Spaniards: 292, 332, 340, 345 
Spanish: authorities, 339; 
charged affairs, 329 ; — con- 
spiracy in Kentucky, 335, 
339; — conspiracy in Tennes- 
see, ch. XX, 339; — court, 
347 ;— domain, 348 ;— govern- 
ment, 346 ; — minister, 331 ; — 
traders, 340 
Spotswood, Gov. Alexander: 

97, 98 
St. Asaph's: 243 
St. Clair, Sir John: 54 
St. Clair, Gen. Arthur: 133 
Stalnaker, Samuel: 83, 94 
Stanford: 243 
Steep Rock: 194 
Stephen, Col. Adam: 94, 95 
Stewart, John: 139, 148, 149, 

150, 151, 152, 153 
Stone, Uriah: 121, 123 
Stoner, Michael: 121, 212, 232, 

272 
Stuart, Capt. John: 91-92 



391 



INDEX 



Stuart, John: 111, 191, 192, 
194, 261 

Stuart, pioneer: 283 

Superintendent of Indian Af- 
fairs: 112, 331 

Swan, David L.: 252 

Switzerland: 134 

Sycamore Shoals of Watauga 
River: 219, 221, 263, 293 

Synge, Archbishop: 7 



Tascarora Indians: 72 

Tate, Samuel: 228 

Taylor: Hancock, 122;— Rich- 
ard, 122; Zachary, 122 

Tennessee: XV, 9, 112, 124, 
128, 129, 132, 140, 190, 191, 
192, 196, 211, 224, 269, 289, 
290, 315, 348, 349 ; countries, 
332 ;— riflemen, 291 ;— settle- 
ments, 261, 264, 314, 315;— 
settlers, 270, 281, 330, 331 

Terre Haute: 123 

Thompson: 84 

Thompson, James: 263 

Tiftoe, Cherokee Chief: 79 

Tipton, Col. John: 321, 322, 
328, 331 

Tipton, Jonathan: 322 

Tonti, Henry de: 45 

Tories: 289, 305 

Town Fork: 163 

Trabum, Damie: diary of, 275 

Tracey, John: 69 

Trade: British, 46 

Traders: with Indians, VII- 

392 



IX, 44, 46, 59, 113, 117, 118, 
136 

Trading Ford: 35 

Trading House: British, 47 

Trans-Alleghany: 21, 48, 99, 
102, 119, 129, 140, 147, 159, 
185, 201, 202, 204, 206, 212, 
215, 216, 242, 277, 279, 330, 
340 

Transylvania: 200, 235, ch. 
XV, 243, 248, 252, 258, 279, 
280, 287; colony of, 25; 
president of, 246; proprie- 
tors of, 229, 236, 244, 248, 
256 

Transylvania Company: 114, 
119, ch. XII, 237, 238, 240, 
249, 253, 254, 258, 278, 287, 
288; compact of, with Cum- 
berland settlers, 285-286; 
organized, 218; permanent 
contribution of, to coloniza- 
tion of West, 259 

Transylvania Legislature : 244, 
249, 255 

Transylvania Purchase: 220, 
248, 278 

Transylvania Trail: 215, 226 

Treaty: with Indians, 59; at 
Charleston, 94; at Fort 
Stanwix, 111; at Hard La- 
bor, 112, 114; at Lochaber, 
192; at Sycamore Shoals, 
221-225 

Trent, Capt. William: 47 

Tryon, Gov. William: 112, 141, 
176, 183, 191 

Tryon Mountain: 112, 135, 191 

Tryon's Line: 112 

Tuckasegee: 307 



INDEX 



u 


187, 188, 191, 192, 193, 195, 




198, 200, 204, 205, 206, 209, 


Ulster: 6-7 


211, 214, 220, 221, 222, 226, 


Ulster Scots: characterization 


235, 237, 239, 242, 243, 244, 


of, 23, 32 


251, 256, 258, 265, 269, 277, 


Unakas: 263 


278, 279, 281, 282, 287, 290, 


Union: 319, 335, 336, 34-2, 348, 


305, 323, 326 


349; see American Union 


Virginians: 96, 205, 208, 230, 


United States: 277, 335, 339, 


231, 251, 299 


344, 345, 346, 347 




United States Congress: 310, 


W 


311, 312, 346 




Untoola: 316 


Wabash (Ouabache) Land 


Upper Towns: 66, 89 


Company: see Land Compa- 


Utopia: 44 


begins erection of Catawba 



V 

Valley of Mexico: 144 

Vandalia: 206, 208 

Vasco Nunez: 144 

Venango: 47 

Versailles: 43 

Villiers, Coulon de: 48 

Virginia: pioneers of, 95, 296; 
— traders, 96; — troops, 212, 
266, 273;— frontier, 74; Ga- 
zette, 110, 272; — backwoods, 
28-29 ;— Valley of, 9, 16, 26, 
33, 34; — Convention, 251, 
257;— Land Office, 281;— 
Assembly, 67, 278;— Militia, 
209 ; — House of Delegates, 
278, 279 ;— Governor of, 67, 
198;— Path, 64, 76;— Re- 
monstrance, 207, XV, 10, 14, 
42, 45, 47, 52, 53, 58, 59, 64, 
68, 69, 70, 72, 83, 96, 99, 
112, 113, 114, 116, 118, 127, 
130, 131, 132, 134, 138, 163, 



ntes 

Wachan: 83, 87 

Wachonia: 86; — community 
diary, 64 

Wade, Capt. Robert: 74 

Waddell, Gen. Hugh: 53, 55- 
56, 95, 133, 134; appointed 
Indian commissioner, 59 ; 
Fort, 70; discontinues work 
on fort, 71; in Fort Du- 
quesne campaign, 72; has- 
tens to Rowan's defence, 76; 
marches to aid South Caro- 
lina, 77; report of, on de- 
feat of Indians at Fort 
Dobbs, 81-82; rescues cap- 
tives, 86; leads North Caro- 
lina troops, 93, 94 

Walden, Elisha: 119 

Walden's Mountain: 119-120 

Walker, Dr. Thomas: 99, 102, 
115, 116, 117, 191; makes ex- 
ploration for Loyal Land 
Company, 99-100; sells land 
to Joseph Martin, 113 






INDEX 



Walker, Felix: 228, 245, 260; 
describes Kentucky, 233-234 
Walpole, Thomas, 206 
Ward, James: 139 
Ward, Nancy: 262, 264 
Washington District: 260, 277, 

314, 326 
Washington, George: 47, 55, 
72, 134, 256, 291; opinion of 
royal proclamation, 106; 
purchases Western lands, 
106-107; makes charges 
against Dunmore, 206-207; 
secures military grants for 
Western lands, 208; Preston 
to, on Henderson purchase 
and Transylvania Company, 
221, 237-238, 242-243 

Watauga: ch. XII, 191, 194, 
200, 270, 281-282;— com- 
monwealth, 199; valley of, 
188, 195, 196, 306;— coun- 
try, 187, 189; settlers, 195, 
196, 197, 200, 259;— Articles 
of Association, 197; — Asso- 
ciation, 224; settlement, 260, 
281 

"Watauga Plan": commission 
form of government, 260 

Waxhaws: 32 

Webster: 307 

Welsh: immigration of, 5; — 
settlers, 28; stock, 163 

West: 160,- 187, 259, 273, 277, 
327, 342, 348 

West Virginia: 14, 206 

Western: leaders, 292; — peo- 
ple, 347;— settlers, 311, 329; 
territory, 347, 348;— waters, 
314, 348 



Wharton: Samuel, 206;— 

Thomas, 209-211 
White, Dr. James: 331, 332, 

338, 346; emissary of 

Franklin, 337 
Whitehall: 206 
Wilderness Trail: 230 
Wilkinson, General James : 

335, 336 
Williams, Brigadier-General 

James: 291, 294; killed at 

King's Mountain, 302 
Williams, Col. John: 105, 107, 

149, 187, 222, 254; elected 

delegate from Transylvania 

to Continental Congress, 249 
Williams, John: 141 
Williams and Henderson, law 

firm: 105, 147 
Williamsborough: 103 
Williamsburg: 210 
Williamson, Col. Andrew: 266 
Williamson, Dr. Hugh: 10, 

312-313 
Wilmington: 169 
Winchester, Kentucky: 117 
Winchester, Virginia: 12 
Winston, Major Joseph: leads 

North Carolina troops 

against Cherokees, 266 ; 

leads Surry riflemen at 

King's Mountain, 293, 298, 

303-304 
Wolf Hills (Abingdon): 134 
Wood, Col. Abraham: 42 
Wormley, Ralph: 239 
Wytheville: 112 



394 



Yadkin: country, 117, 131, 



INDEX 

139, 143, 145, 163, 164;— Young Warrior of Estaloe, 

Forks of the, 33, 34, 162, Cherokee chief: 79; see 

185;— valley, 10, 13, 15, 32 Silonee. 

York, Pennsylvania: 12 Z 
Yorke, Charles: renders legal 

opinion, 201 Zinzendorf, Count: 13 



395 



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